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NEURASTHENIA 


- OR- 

Nervous Exhaustion 


& 


KELLOGG 







Dr. Kellogg’s Lectures 
on 

Practical Health Topics 





NEURASTHENIA 


-OR- 

Nervous Exhaustion 


Hi 


J: 1 H. Kellogg, M. D., LL. D. 

» % 

Superintendent of the Battle Creek 
Sanitarium ® 


& 


Battle Creek, Michigan 
GOOD HEALTH PUBLISHING CO. 

1914 







Copyright, 1914, by 
Good Health Publishing Co. 


SEP -81914 

©CI.A379378 

ICo, 



Contents 


Introduction . 9 

The Brain and Nerves. 21 

Chronic Fatigue—Nervous Prostration... 29 

How a Neurasthenic Should Live. 5 1 

Toxic Neurasthenia . 79 

Nervous Dyspepsia .123 

Drug Neurasthenia .151 

Religious Neurasthenia .171 

Sexual Neurasthenia.174 

Christian Science, etc.177 

The Philosophy of Sleep.209 

Simple Remedies for Neurasthenic 
Miseries .231 




















» 













NEURASTHENIA: 

ITS CAUSES AND CURE 

Introduction 

This little book is not intended to be a 
technical treatise on the subject named in the 
title. The author will not even attempt an 
exact description of neurasthenia nor a full 
account of its symptoms. An extensive ex¬ 
perience in dealing with neurasthenics has 
shown that this class of nervous invalids are 
very susceptible to suggestion. Neuras¬ 
thenics often acquire new symptoms as a re¬ 
sult of comparing notes with other neuras¬ 
thenics, hence it is thought wise to omit the 
long list of morbid sensations which are sup¬ 
posed to be characteristic of neurasthenia. 

The real purpose of the work is not to 
furnish specific information concerning this 
morbid condition, but rather to show to the 
individual wdio knows himself to be suffering 
from neurasthenia how he may escape from 
the miseries which he daily endures. 


10 


NEURASTHENIA 


Neurasthenia Not a Distinct Disease 

At the outset the author desires to call the 
reader’s attention to the fact that, although 
often for convenience referred to as a dis¬ 
ease, neurasthenia is really not a distinct 
malady in the sense that typhoid fever, small¬ 
pox, pulmonary tuberculosis, or pneumonia 
is a disease, but is rather a symptom or group 
of symptoms resulting from disease. Or, to 
speak more accurately, it is a group of symp¬ 
toms which are not connected with a definite 
morbid condition, but which may accompany 
various morbid states—just as fever with its 
accompanying headache, rapid pulse, high 
temperature, hot skin and prostration is not 
a disease, but rather an indication of the 
presence of disease, the character and seat of 
which may greatly vary. 

The word “neurasthenia” is quite modern. 
It was coined by Dr. George M. Beard, an 
eminent neurologist of New York City, from 
two Greek words meaning “nerve” and “lack 
of energy.” The writer happened to be 
pursuing post-graduate studies under Doctor 


INTRODUCTION 


II 


Beard and acting as his assistant in the de¬ 
partment of nervous disorders at Demilt Dis¬ 
pensary when the Doctor was writing his 
early treatises on neurasthenia, and had an 
opportunity to become thoroughly familiar 
with his views of treatment, one of the char¬ 
acteristic features of which was the almost ab¬ 
solute disuse of drugs, at that time a very 
heretical attitude. Doctor Beard regarded 
neurasthenia as a distinct disease, but the 
writer, although at that time a recent gradu¬ 
ate, soon became skeptical upon this point, 
notwithstanding the almost universal accept¬ 
ance of the views of Doctor Beard in this 
country and Europe. Treatises on neuras¬ 
thenia appeared in every language. Physi¬ 
cians found the new word a convenient name 
for all sorts of morbid nervous conditions. 
The disease was as popular with the laity as 
with the profession. Patients who had long 
been treated without success for nervous pros¬ 
tration were quickly cured by the same reme¬ 
dies applied for the cure of neurasthenia. 
The change of name gave new potency to old 
remedies. A wave of neurasthenia, so to 


12 


NEURASTHENIA 


speak, swept over the whole civilized world 
and it became rather popular to be neuras¬ 
thenic. 

At the present time there are probably very 
few eminent neurologists who regard neuras¬ 
thenia as a disease, and, indeed, the term neu¬ 
rasthenia is disappearing from standard 
medical literature. The author for many 
years has not felt himself justified in making 
a diagnosis of neurasthenia in any case that 
has been presented to him; for back of the 
multifarious symptoms has almost always 
been found, by careful searching, a definite 
morbid condition which was the real disease, 
and to the eradication of which the appro¬ 
priate remedies must be directed. 

The word neurasthenia is used in the title 
of this little work only because its general 
use during two score of years has given to it 
a definite meaning which cannot be so well 
conveyed to the lay mind by any other term. 
The word will probably in time disappear 
from medical literature, although the erron¬ 
eous concept through which it originated will, 


INTRODUCTION 


13 


like many another medical error, long live in 
popular usage. 

Seldom Due to Overwork 

Neurasthenia is generally attributed to 
overwork. In the writer’s experience cases 
of neurasthenia due to overwork are ex¬ 
tremely rare. Indeed, the author does not 
feel certain that he has ever encountered a 
case of this sort. It is not overwork but over¬ 
civilization and useless waste of energy in 
worry and in other ways that produce neu¬ 
rasthenia. Work is physiological. The 
damages which result from work, even from 
overwork, are readily repaired by rest and 
sleep, Nature’s efficient remedies for the con¬ 
sequences of overactivity. 

Every tired man or woman is for the time 
being neurasthenic. His nerve energy is ex¬ 
hausted; his efficiency is impaired, but a 
period of rest with a few hours’ sleep com¬ 
pletely restores him to his normal state. This 
is true of a healthy man; but a neurasthenic 
is tired when he has not worked, perhaps even 
feels worse after he has slept. So it is plain 


14 


NEURASTHENIA 


that the neurasthenic is suffering from some¬ 
thing more than overwork. His fatigue is 
not of a sort that is cured by rest or sleep. 
He is chronically tired. What the real con¬ 
dition is will more clearly appear in later 
chapters. 

Prevalence of Nervousness 

It is important that neurasthenia should be 
understood and dealt with, for its prevalence 
has increased in modern times so that it has 
come to be, in this country at least, almost 
a national malady. Thousands of persons 
are suffering from neurasthenia who are un¬ 
aware of the fact. They know that they are 
irritable, confused, miserable and failing in 
efficiency, but do not dream they are ill, and 
least of all do they suspect that their miseries 
are due to errors in habits of life which might 
easily be remedied. 

Said a lady in our office some years ago, 
while weeping and sobbing most bitterly after 
having given an account of symptoms that 
had revealed the fact that she was exceed¬ 
ingly irritable and that she scolded her hus- 


INTRODUCTION 


15 


band, children and neighbors on the slightesc 
provocation, “Please, Doctor, tell me, am I 
sick, or am I wicked?” Neurasthenia not 
only makes its victims wretched, but it is an 
affliction to their friends as well. It changes 
the character to an extent almost beyond be¬ 
lief and these changes in character, if the dis¬ 
ease is long neglected, may become habits so 
firmly fixed as to be eradicated only with the 
greatest difficulty. 

Neurasthenia is a most demoralizing dis¬ 
ease. The character changes more or less 
in sickness, no matter what the nature of the 
malady. Giving a broad meaning to the word 
“rascal” it is even possible to agree with old 
Doctor Abernathy, who declared, “Every 
man becomes a rascal when he gets sick.” 

There can be no question that many crimes, 
multitudes of suicides, great numbers of di¬ 
vorces and other social calamities may be 
rightfully regarded as among the natural re¬ 
sults of neurasthenic conditions. Probably 
more than one poor fellow has been sent to 
the gallows by a judge who was suffering 
from a fit of neurasthenia. Wars have been 


16 


NEURASTHENIA 


declared, and rivers of blood have flowed to 
satisfy the whims of neurasthenic kings and 
queens. Unquestionably our national char¬ 
acter is undergoing a change in an unfavor¬ 
able direction; if not as a result of neuras¬ 
thenia, then as a result of causes to which neu¬ 
rasthenia itself is due. Ten thousand murders 
a year, fifteen thousand suicides, sixty thou¬ 
sand divorces and a steady increase of crimes 
of all sorts are clear indications of the moral 
depreciation which seems to be accelerating 
with each decade. Insanity is increasing at 
the rate of three hundred per cent in fifty 
years. Feeble-mindedness has doubled within 
a generation. According to Doctor Daven¬ 
port, of the Carnegie Institution, mental de¬ 
fectives at the present time constitute one per 
cent of the entire population. The increase 
of neurasthenia is simply one phase of the 
race degeneracy which is making rapid prog¬ 
ress in all civilized countries. 

Not Hereditary 

Neurasthenia is not hereditary, but an in¬ 
creasingly large proportion of the popula- 


INTRODUCTION 


17 


tion is born with a predisposition to neuras¬ 
thenia and other neuroses. This predisposi¬ 
tion is, of course, not curable. It is a 
personal characteristic as definite and in¬ 
eradicable as the color of the hair or the 
eyes, but if the predisposition cannot be re¬ 
moved, its outward manifestations may be in¬ 
definitely postponed or altogether prevented. 
Probably most neurasthenics are born with a 
predisposition to the disease, although it is 
also probable that any person may become a 
neurasthenic if the exciting causes of this con¬ 
dition are applied with sufficient intensity and 
for a sufficient length of time. 

The remedies suggested in this book as a 
means by which neurasthenia can be cured, if 
applied by a person born with a predisposi¬ 
tion to neurasthenia may altogether prevent 
the appearance of the disease. Neurasthenia 
is practically always due to unnatural habits 
of life. It may be most often traced to 
errors in diet or other departure from the 
physiologic laws which govern man’s physical 
being. 

Neurasthenia is simply a state of exhaus- 


18 


NEURASTHENIA 


tion of the vital resources the result of neg¬ 
lecting to conform to the great biologic laws 
which have control over the functions of the 
mind and body just as the law of gravitation 
controls the movement of the planets. While 
recognizing the immutability of the laws of 
the inanimate world, when carefully studying 
and applying the natural principles which 
govern animal and vegetable life, and with 
the most marvelous results in improvement 
of every plant and every beast which he has 
redeemed from the forest and the jungle, 
and even in the creation of new and wonder¬ 
ful species of plants and animals, man treats 
himself as an exception to all other living 
things and beings and has undertaken to as¬ 
sert superiority over the biologic laws which 
govern his species and to establish an order 
prompted by his own fickle fancy. The re¬ 
sults of this ignoring of natural laws and 
principles have been accumulating during 
many ages and are now showing themselves 
in exaggerated form in a widespread tendency 
which in recent years has attracted the atten¬ 
tion of intelligent and thoughtful people in 


INTRODUCTION 


19 


all parts of the civilized world. An immense 
amount of important data bearing on this 
question was brought out in the late Race 
Betterment Conference held at Battle Creek 
in January of the present year (1914). 

The Return to Nature Cure 

Neurasthenia is only one of the conse¬ 
quences of our wide digression from the path 
of physical rectitude. The cure of neuras¬ 
thenia consists in returning to Nature: in 
ceasing to do evil and learning to do well, 
and in the cultivation of the simple life. It 
is believed that an intelligent application of 
the simple but thoroughgoing measures sug¬ 
gested in this little work will be found effi¬ 
cient, not only as a means of preventing neu¬ 
rasthenia in those with a predisposition to 
this condition, but in the cure of every neuras¬ 
thenic who is not so far depreciated by his 
disease that he is no longer able to follow a 
definite or restricted course of life. It is just 
to the measures suggested to say that they 
are not experimental but have been success¬ 
fully employed in the treatment of many thou- 


20 


NEURASTHENIA 


sands of neurasthenics. During the last forty 
years the writer has been constantly dealing 
with this class of patients and by the use of 
the methods herein recommended has seen 
many thousands who have been for many 
years crippled or completely disabled by neu¬ 
rasthenic conditions restored to a fair state of 
health and usefulness. The improvement has 
been in some instances so rapid as to seem al¬ 
most miraculous and the transformation so 
complete and wonderful as to be a great sur¬ 
prise to the patient and his friends. 

Lastly it should be said that it is not the 
purpose of the author in the presentation of 
this book to supply in any case a substitute 
for the wise physician, but rather to supply 
to the physician an aid and ally in dealing 
with his neurasthenic patient. What the neu¬ 
rasthenic can do for himself is much greater 
in importance than what his physician can do 
for him. It is the aim of this little brochure 
to point out to the victim of neurasthenia 
what he can do for himself in working out 
the problem of his recovery. 


The Brain and Nerves 


To be able to appreciate the value of the 
rational method of preventing and curing neu¬ 
rasthenia it is essential to have in mind at 
the beginning the fundamental facts of the 
anatomy and physiology of the brain and 
nerves. 

The brain is a community of thinking cells. 
The spinal cord is an extension of the brain 
down the bony canal of the spine. The 
nerves are simply extensions of the brain and 
spinal cord into the body at large. The brain 
and spinal cord, technically known as the 
central nervous system, thus occupy the whole 
body, just as do the blood-vessels, which are 
simply extensions of the heart, just as the 
nerves are extensions of the brain. 

The Case of the Ameba 

The lowest animal form is a single cell. 
Such an animal, as an ameba, for example, 
possesses in a general way the characteristic 

21 


22 


NEURASTHENIA 


functions of higher animals, without the 
special organs which in higher animal forms 
are connected with these functions. The 
ameba has no ears, eyes, nose or other sense 
organs, yet it is keenly sensitive. It seems to 
be able to feel, taste, and smell, although it 
appears even under the most powerful micro¬ 
scope to be simply a living jelly drop without 
a bodily structure at all resembling that of 
higher animals. 

The ameba has no muscles, yet it contracts. 
It has no arms, legs, fins or wings, yet it has 
the faculty of locomotion. It has no stomach, 
yet it digests; no liver, yet it excretes; no 
lungs, yet it breathes; no brain, yet it mani¬ 
fests marvelous intelligence or instinct. The 
one simple cell performs all the duties of 
brain, stomach, muscle, liver, lungs, and 
special senses. 

Higher animals are communities of cells 
divided into groups, each of which is charged 
with some special function, like the specialists 
who follow particular vocations in a civic 
community. Cells which make a specialty of 
contracting are associated together to form 


BRAIN AND NERVES 


23 


the muscular system. The cells which breathe 
form the lungs; cells which excrete, the kid¬ 
neys, liver or skin; cells which think and 
feel, the brain and nerves. 

The Brain and Nerve Cells—the Neuron 

It is less than a score of years since the 
structure of the brain and nerves has been 
understood. The wonderful discoveries of 
Cajal, a Spanish physiologist, unraveled 
mysteries which had baffled the wisest 
scholars and philosophers for ages. We now 
know that the brain and nerves are com¬ 
posed of cells of most extraordinary forms 
and properties, each of which is known as a 
neuron. 

The neuron is the unit of the nervous sys¬ 
tem. A neuron consists of three parts: a 
body, arms or branches known as “dend¬ 
rites,” and one very long arm called the 
“axon.” 

A nerve cell is strictly comparable to a 
small battery or a battery cell. In its body 
it generates nerve energy, just as a battery 
cell or a dynamo generates electricity. The 



24 


NEURASTHENIA 


axon conducts the nerve energy as a wire con¬ 
ducts electricity. The dendrites are receiv¬ 
ing organs, like the antennae of the wireless 
apparatus. The dendrites of one cell form 
contacts with one or more axons of other 
cells. A nerve cell is really comparable to a 
central telephone station; it both receives 
and sends out messages. It differs from a 
telephone station essentially in the fact that 
while it may receive messages from many 
directions through its numerous branching 
dendrites, it has but one wire on which to 
send out its messages. But this one wire may 
make contacts with many different cells. 

The neurons of the brain and cord are 
gathered in groups which are called ganglia, 
or nerve centers, each of which is charged 
with the same special function. Every im¬ 
portant organ and function of the body has 
its governing nerve center. Even each in¬ 
dividual group of muscles is represented by 
a controlling “motor center” at the surface 
of the brain. Control is for the most part 
effected through the axons which pass from 
the brain to neurons in the cord, and from 


BRAIN AND NERVES 


25 


the neurons of the cord axons are sent to the 
individual muscles and other organs. 

The various nerve centers of the brain and 
cord are connected by axons, which thus asso¬ 
ciate and unify the action of the several 
centers. The structure of the brain has been 
so carefully studied that the function of every « 
part is now pretty definitely known, so that 
any diseased condition of the brain may gen¬ 
erally be discovered by means of accompany¬ 
ing disturbances in distant related parts. 

Nerve Energy 

The energy generated by nerve cells was 
once supposed to be identical with electricity, 
but it is now known that this is not true. 
Nerve energy travels much more slowly than 
does electricity. The rate at which a nerve 
impulse travels is only about one hundred feet 
a minute, whereas electricity travels at the 
rate of 280,000 miles a second, or nearly a 
billion times faster. 

Nerve energy differs from electricity in 
another important particular. Electricity 
will travel on any moist or metallic substance. 


26 


NEURASTHENIA 


Nerve force will travel on nothing but nerves, 
—axons or neurons. If a nerve is cut, the 
current of nerve energy is at once interrupted 
and is not restored, even if the ends are 
pressed together ever so closely. The nerve 
conductor is restored only by actual repair 
and restoration of the continuity of the living 
conducting path. Electricity, on the other 
hand, requires only a good contact to insure 
conduction. 

The source of nerve energy in the cell has 
been shown to be certain minute granules 
' known as energy granules, which represent 
stored-up energy which has been gathered 
from the food materials circulating in the 
blood stream. 


Mental Activity 

Science has not yet fully solved the mystery 
of mind, and probably never will, but it is 
known that certain parts of the brain, partic¬ 
ularly the surface of the front and middle 
portions of the cerebrum, are specially con¬ 
cerned in mental activity. Various groups of 
cells are charged with the duty of storing up 


BRAIN AND NERVES 


27 


impressions received through the senses. By 
means of the axons and dendrites these vari¬ 
ous groups are connected. Through the re¬ 
lations thus formed, ideas are developed and 
thoughts and concepts are formed. 

Mental energy, like nerve energy of which 
it is only one form, depends upon the energy 
granules stored up in the cells. 

Mental capacity depends upon the number 
of brain cells and the number of groupings 
formed by connecting or so-called “associa¬ 
tion” fibres. 


Cell Quality Important 

Mental efficiency depends upon cell quality 
as well as cell numbers. Cells which are 
lacking in energy granules, or which are un¬ 
able to make use of their stores of energy, 
will function badly—just as a battery may be 
weak, either because it is nearly run down and 
needs to have its elements renewed, or be¬ 
cause it is short-circuited, so that its energy is 
being used up in consuming the battery itself 
instead of being available for useful work. 

A neurasthenic may be in a condition re¬ 
sembling a run-down battery, or his state may 



28 


NEURASTHENIA 


be comparable to that of a short circuited 
battery in which there may be a great ex¬ 
penditure of energy without the accomplish¬ 
ment of any useful work. 

The Finest Instrument Known to Man 

The human brain is no doubt the finest in¬ 
strument which is known to man. By means 
of this marvelous structure the simple inani¬ 
mate food we swallow today may be so 
metamorphosed and transfigured as tomor¬ 
row to be walking, talking and thinking. 
This wonderful thinking mechanism, with its 
hundred billion cells and millions of group¬ 
ings, requires for its perfect working the 
finest adjustment of essential conditions. Just 
the right amount of blood from the heart, 
the proper supply of oxygen from the lungs, 
the right amount and kind of nutriment from 
the stomach and intestine, the constant re¬ 
moval of waste products by the blood and 
lymph, the necessary repair of worn parts by 
adequate rest and sleep,—these are a few of 
the conditions essential for healthful, force¬ 
ful brain activity. How seldom are these 
conditions perfectly realized! 


Chronic Fatigue — Nervous 
Prostration 


As explained in Chapter II, a nerve cell 
generates nerve energy, just as a battery cell 
generates electricity. When examined under 
a microscope a healthy nerve cell is seen to 
contain a number of minute, glistening gran¬ 
ules. Certain coloring matters are readily 
taken up by these granules so that they may be 
made easily visible under the microscope and 
thus their number readily estimated. Pro¬ 
fessor Hodge, an eminent physiologist, has 
demonstrated by a minute study of the nerve 
cells of swallows that there is a great loss of 
cell substance after the bird has been for 
hours active on the wing. These observa¬ 
tions with numerous others have definitely 
proved that the granules represent stored 
energy. That is, they consist of material 
which the cell uses in producing the energy 
which it sends out along its axon to other 
cells or to the various organs and structures 

29 


30 


NEURASTHENIA 


of the body. Thus a cell through its activity 
consumes itself, just as a battery uses up the 
elements of which it is composed. The ex¬ 
hausted cell is diminished in size and it has a 
much smaller number of energy granules than 
does the rested cell. 

It is evident, then, that the amount of 
energy which a cell can manifest depends 
first of all upon the amount of energy which 
it has in store. A cell which is well filled with 
energy granules is capable of a much greater 
output of energy than a cell that is half empty 
of its granules; just as a battery that has been 
freshly renewed is capable of sending out a 
larger amount of current than a battery which 
is half run down. The nerve cell which has 
used up its store of energy so that its output 
is very small or has ceased altogether is in a 
state of partial or complete exhaustion. 

But there must be other causes of fatigue, 
for it frequently occurs that a person who 
seems completely exhausted, after a few mo¬ 
ments’ rest will seem to be quite fresh again 
and able to resume activity. The time which 
has elapsed in the interval of rest has been 


CHRONIC FATIGUE 


31 


too short to permit the cell to recruit restored 
energy to any considerable degree; hence, 
there must be some other influence at work. 

What the Laboratory Shows About Fatigued 

Muscle 

Laboratory experiments have shown that 
an exhausted muscle may be completely rested 
by simply washing it, showing that the ex¬ 
hausted muscles contain some element the re¬ 
moval of which restores the ability of the 
muscle to work. Too, it has been noted that 
if the muscles of the legs are worked to the 
extent of exhaustion the arms also become 
tired, even though they have taken no part in 
the work. Professor Ranke found that an 
extract prepared from exhausted frog muscles 
produced fatigue when introduced into the cir¬ 
culation of fresh muscles. These experiments 
have led to the conclusion that work gives 
rise to poisons which result from the activi¬ 
ties of the cell. These fatigue poisons lessen 
the working power of the cell. If they are 
removed by the blood and lymph as rapidly 
as formed then they do not produce a sensa- 


32 


NEURASTHENIA 


tion of fatigue. In experiments on muscles it 
is found that if an interval of ten seconds is 
permitted to elapse after each movement the 
same movement may be repeated for a very 
long time without fatigue; whereas without 
the interval fatigue occurs in a very short 
time. 

Various other factors contribute to the 
production of fatigue. For example, a person 
who could walk several miles without serious 
fatigue might find himself completely tired 
out by walking the steel rail of a railroad 
track for half an hour. The close attention 
and constant muscular effort required to main¬ 
tain one’s balance while walking on a narrow 
base are the cause of the greater exhaustion 
in this case. Simple mental tasks which may 
be performed with very little effort or without 
fatigue under favorable conditions, such as the 
adding of a column of figures, often becomes 
very exhausting when done under unfavorable 
conditions, as amid distracting surroundings 
or constant interruptions. An attempt to 
work when the mind is preoccupied with some 
insistent idea which cannot be put aside is 


CHRONIC FATIGUE 


33 


most exhausting. The intruding ideas act 
like a brake upon the wheels of the mind, 
diverting the attention and compelling the ex¬ 
penditure of an undue amount of energy for 
the accomplishment of the work in hand. 
Such persons are like a short circuited battery. 
The brain energy is consumed in internal 
work, so that little is available for useful ac¬ 
tivity. It is thus apparent that working 
ability depends, not only upon the possession 
by the brain cells of a sufficient store of 
energy, but upon a variety of other conditions 
which must be favorably controlled to secure 
the highest degree of efficiency. 

To give the nerve cells an opportunity to 
renew their energy granules, adequate rest 
and sleep are essential, as the cell can accumu¬ 
late energy only when the intake exceeds the 
output. In order that the working cell may 
maintain its activity it must be constantly 
bathed with blood rich in oxygen, so that the 
waste products of its activity may become 
oxidized and eliminated, thus preventing 
the accumulation of fatigue poisons. Every¬ 
one has at some time experienced the refresh- 


34 


NEURASTHENIA 


ing effect of a half hour's walk in the fresh 
air after several hours of taxing mental work. 

Depression Resulting From Excessive Heat 

A condition which closely resembles fatigue 
is the depression which results from excessive 
heat. The direct effect of heat upon living 
cells is stimulating. Heat, like cold, is an ex¬ 
citant. The effect upon the general nervous 
system of the exposure of the body to heat in 
an overheated atmosphere or immersion in a 
hot bath is highly depressing. This effect of 
heat, which closely resembles a condition of 
fatigue, may be quickly overcome by cold ap¬ 
plications. This is well shown by an experi¬ 
ment made by the author several years ago. 
The strength of a vigorous, healthy man was 
tested with the universal dynamometer and 
was found to be, in the aggregate, 6,000 
pounds. A hot bath was administered for 
half an hour, at the end of which time the sub¬ 
ject was so weak that he could scarcely stand 
without assistance. The strength tests were 
repeated. Although the subject exerted him¬ 
self to the utmost, the total was found to be 


CHRONIC FATIGUE 


35 


only five thousand pounds, or sixteen per cent 
less than before the bath. A cold shower 
was then applied for three or four minutes, 
at the end of which time the strength was 
again tested and the total now found to be six 
thousand one hundred pounds, or more than 
at the beginning of the experiment. This ex¬ 
periment showed very well the power of cold 
in neutralizing the effects of fatigue when due 
to causes other than actual exhaustion of the 
stores of energy in the nerve centers. This 
experiment also illustrates the depressing ef¬ 
fects of heat and explains the weakness and 
exhaustion from which many neurasthenics 
suffer on hot days or during long spells of 
warm weather. The neurasthenic is often 
susceptible to weather changes. 

Overwork Not the Most Frequent Cause 

The state of chronic fatigue may possibly 
be due to overwork, although in the writer’s 
experience this cause is much less frequently 
in evidence than is generally supposed. The 
neurasthenic is generally told he has over¬ 
worked. “Broken down from overwork” is 


36 


NEURASTHENIA 


the most frequent diagnosis in neurasthenic 
cases. After many years of observation the 
writer is convinced that overwork is seldom 
the real cause of the so-called neurasthenic 
state. 

A careful inquiry into all the conditions of 
life and all influences in operation will, in 
nearly every case, show other and far more 
potent causes for the production of a neuras¬ 
thenic state than excessive work. Insuffi¬ 
ciency of sleep, or sleep in a hot, unventilated 
room, or amid noise or under unfavorable 
circumstances, may easily become a cause 
of neurasthenia. 

Insufficient Nourishment 

Insufficiency of food is another cause of 
neurasthenia occasionally encountered in this 
country, though less common than in some 
others. Like all other body structures, nerve 
cells derive their stores of energy from 
food. It is evident that deficiency of food 
must deprive the cells of their supplies of 
energy material and so must lead to lack of 
endurance and chronic fatigue. While this 


CHRONIC FATIGUE 


37 


is true, there is no ground for the widely en¬ 
tertained belief that flesh foods, eggs, fish, 
and other foodstuffs which are rich in animal 
protein are especially necessary to make good 
a loss of nervous energy. The truth is the 
very opposite. 

Experiments of Von Noorden, Lusk, 
Zuntz and others have shown beyond any 
room for doubt that nitrogenous food¬ 
stuffs—that is, foods rich in protein or 
albumin—abnormally exhaust the energy 
centers and so lead to a great waste of energy. 
The evidence afforded by the latest scientific 
studies of this subject goes to show that while 
a small amount of protein is necessary for the 
building up of nerve tissues, as well as other 
tissues, fats and carbohydrates (that is, 
starches and sugars) with the organic salts 
which are found in cereals and vegetables, are 
of first importance in replenishing nervous 
energy. The brain, like the muscles, requires 
fuel to support its activities. The fats and 
starches offer the best fuel foods, while pro¬ 
tein or nitrogenous substances are an inferior 
source of energy, whether nervous or muscu- 


38 


NEURASTHENIA 


lar, and their use in excess of the amounts 
needed for tissue repair, is accompanied by 
loss of energy and other still more serious in¬ 
conveniences. 

Worry a Mental Short-Circuiting 

Worry is a source of mental short-circuit¬ 
ing which rapidly exhausts the nerve centers, 
draining them of their energy and unfitting 
the body for useful effort. Experiments with 
the plethysmograph have demonstrated that 
depressing emotions are far more powerful 
causes of wear and tear to nerve centers than 
is healthy brain work. No matter how vigor¬ 
ous the intellectual activity may be, according 
to Mosso’s observations the effect upon the 
brain is far less than that of a disturbing 
emotion. Mental work combined with worry 
and anxiety tears down the nerve centers, ex¬ 
hausts their stores of energy, and cripples 
their ability to recuperate; but it is not the 
work itself which does the mischief; it is the 
cross-fire, short-circuit, confusing and harass¬ 
ing influence of disturbing emotions which ex- 


CHRONIC FATIGUE 


39 


hausts the nerve forces and prevents the 
brain from repairing its losses. 

Mental diversion and a favorable psycho¬ 
logical environment are unquestionably of im¬ 
portance in the treatment of neurasthenics. 
But this is not all, however, and that back of 
the psychic disturbances lie real physical dis¬ 
orders which a patient is more or less power¬ 
less to resist has been illustrated by a story 
told of the famous Doctor Abernathy, a lead¬ 
ing London physician in the early part of the 
last century. Being consulted one day by a 
most woe-be-gone and melancholy patient, he 
said, “You need diversion, sir. Go to hear 
Grimaldi”—a famous French humorist who 
was at the time convulsing great London 
audiences with his wit. “Alas,” said the pa¬ 
tient,- “I am Grimaldi.” 

Insomnia a Frequent Cause 

A person who is the victim of chronic fa¬ 
tigue is often the victim of insomnia. He 
never sleeps soundly, is awakened by slight 
sounds, and when he does sleep he is agitated 
by frightful or depressing dreams from which 


40 


NEURASTHENIA 


he often awakens in a state of profound agita¬ 
tion and with a sense of great exhaustion. 
Such persons often rise in the morning feeling 
less refreshed than when they retired the 
night before. In fact, morning depression 
and wretchedness are common symptoms in 
neurasthenics, many of whom feel much less 
fatigued in the evening than on rising in the 
morning. 

Mental confusion, loss of memory, in¬ 
ability to concentrate the mind, indecision and 
other neurasthenic symptoms often disappear 
as evening approaches, only to reappear again 
on the following morning. Neurasthenics of 
this class are almost invariably found to be 
suffering from insufficient elimination. A 
coated tongue and a bad breath indicate a 
state of chronic toxemia. During sleep the 
action of the heart, lungs, kidneys and other 
eliminating organs is diminished to a marked 
degree; in consequence there is during the 
night an accumulation of waste and toxic sub¬ 
stances which befog the brain, cripple the 
nerve cells, and give rise to the aggravation 
of miseries which these patients experience. 


CHRONIC FATIGUE 


41 


Not a few neurasthenics on the other hand 
find themselves feeling quite well in the morn¬ 
ing and are able to endure an hour or two of 
active work; then comes an overpowering 
sense of fatigue that unfits them for any 
further work during the day. 

The Occupational Factor 

With some the inability to work manifests 
itself only in relation to certain occupations, 
usually those to which the subject has long 
been accustomed and which seem to have in¬ 
duced over-exhaustion of certain portions or 
faculties of the brain. In such cases, change 
of occupation will sometimes effect a com¬ 
plete cure, although the effects may be only 
temporary. 

Certain neurasthenics are exhausted by use 
of the eyes in reading or other fine work. 
Others are chiefly fatigued by the use of the 
arms, while others find it impossible to walk 
more than a short distance without a sense 
of complete exhaustion. These different 
forms of neurasthenia do not differ essentially 
in character but rather in the special way in 


42 


NEURASTHENIA 


which the morbid condition present is mani¬ 
fested. 

The writer considers it important that the 
popular idea that neurasthenia is due to over¬ 
work should be vigorously combated. Un¬ 
fortunately this idea has been generally en¬ 
tertained by the medical profession as well as 
by the laity. 

Excessive and prolonged activity of the 
brain may be followed by neurasthenia; but 
the result cannot be fairly attributed to work. 
This view has been firmly held by the writer 
for very many years, and in support thereof 
we are able to quote Doctors Proust and Bal¬ 
let, two eminent French physicians, who in 
their recent excellent work on neurasthenia, 
state that “intellectual work is one of the 
least formidable causes of neurasthenia,” 
adding, “The man who, without anxiety, with¬ 
out other care than that of research, gives 
himself up even passionately to speculative 
studies, is but slightly exposed to fall into 
neurasthenia. If he bring too lively an 
ardour to his work, or if he prolong his exer¬ 
tions beyond measure, the result will be a 


CHRONIC FATIGUE 


43 


state of fatigue more or less profound, ac¬ 
cording to the degree of resistance of his 
brain, and nothing more. Fatigue, and the em¬ 
barrassment of cerebral activity that follows 
it, will of themselves put an end to this over¬ 
pressure, or will at least restrain it within 
just bounds; the nervous exhaustion that may 
result from it will in such a case be speedily 
reparable. We venture to affirm then that, 
apart from very rare exceptions, intellectual 
overwork properly so-called is incapable of 
engendering a persistent neurasthenia: pro¬ 
vided always that hereditary defects or de¬ 
pressing emotions do not come, as most often 
happens, to add their pernicious influence to 
the excess of intellectual work.” 

Neurasthenia a Disease of Sedentary Life 

The fact that neurasthenia is especially a 
disease of sedentary life is very well shown 
in the following statistical table prepared by 
Professors Proust and Ballet: 

Among 604 neurasthenics were found— 

Merchants and manufacturers.198 

Clerks.130 




44 


NEURASTHENIA 


Professors and teachers. 68 

Students . 56 

Officers. 38 

Artists. 33 

Without profession. 19 

Medical men. 17 

Agriculturalists. 17 

Clergy. 10 

Men of science and learning. 6 

Schoolboys . 6 

Working men. 6 


That muscular work, even excessive, is 
not a common cause of chronic neurasthenia 
is clearly shown by clinical experience. The 
above table shows only one neurasthenic from 
the working class to more than a hundred 
from men leading sedentary lives. 

Neurasthenics are by far more numerous 
among the educated and so-called refined 
classes. Teachers, clergymen, lawyers, physi¬ 
cians and other professional men are much 
more subject to neurasthenia than are farmers 
and others whose vocations require a consid¬ 
erable degree of muscular exertion. 

While women perhaps suffer more fre- 













CHRONIC FATIGUE 


45 


quently from splanchnic neurasthenia than do 
men, on account of their improper mode of 
dress and neglect of muscular development, 
men on the whole are more subject to neu¬ 
rasthenia than women. 

Von Hossling noted that of 828 neuras¬ 
thenic patients 604 were men, and 224, or a 
little more than one-fourth, were women. In 
women the same causes which give rise to 
neurasthenia in men more frequently produce 
hysteria. 

Neurasthenic Boys and Girls 

Neurasthenia often begins in childhood. 
Multitudes of children are made neuras¬ 
thenic by wrong methods in education, espe¬ 
cially by the neglect of physical development 
and by improper discipline in the school or in 
the home. Doubtless most of these young 
neurasthenics are predisposed to neuroses by 
heredity. The proportion of such children 
to the total school population is unquestion¬ 
ably increasing. It is consequently of the 
highest importance that preventive measures 
should be applied at an early period, and 


46 


NEURASTHENIA 


especially that influences calculated to develop 
the neurasthenic tendency should be sup¬ 
pressed. 

Children predisposed to neurasthenia 
should be brought up from the very start in 
strict harmony with simple life principles. 
Diet, clothing, sleep, exercise, should all be 
regulated with the most careful regard for 
the physical needs of the child. Meats, condi¬ 
ments, tea, coffee, pastry and confectionery, 
for which things neurasthenic children are 
especially likely to acquire a fondness, should 
be strictly withheld. The child should spend 
every possible moment of his life in the open 
air and should sleep in a fresh air sleeping 
room at all seasons of the year. Neuras¬ 
thenic children need the benefit of the open 
air school as much as do tubercular children, 
and they profit as greatly by it. 

Neurasthenic children have a special tend¬ 
ency to the formation of perverse sexual 
habits, often at a very early age, even in the 
years of infancy; hence, very special atten¬ 
tion should be given to careful supervision in 
this regard. There is no doubt that by suf- 


CHRONIC FATIGUE 


47 


liciently thorough and careful training, chil¬ 
dren who are known to be burdened by 
heredity with a neurasthenic tendency may by 
education be able to form new habits and to 
develop new instincts, which will balance and 
neutralize their ancestral traits and tend¬ 
encies and thus prevent any development of 
disease. 

The Question of Heredity Important 

The educator of the future will make a 
study of the child’s heredity as much a matter 
of concern as observation of the child him¬ 
self. It is only, indeed, by a knowledge of 
the character of the child’s hereditary en¬ 
dowment that the teacher can really under¬ 
stand the nature of the problem which it is 
his duty to solve. 

Our educational methods at the present 
time are exceedingly crude, and take almost 
no account of individual requirements. They 
are largely modeled upon false psychologic 
theories. A small beginning in the direction 
of better methods has been made in the 
establishment of special classes for backward 


48 


NEURASTHENIA 


and defective children. The study of defec¬ 
tives has developed such a rich fund of facts 
and principles relating to child psychology 
and mental growth that the time cannot be far 
distant when the average and so-called normal 
child will, by the application of these facts 
and principles, enjoy a better opportunity 
for acquiring through education advantages 
which are not even contemplated in our pres¬ 
ent system of school training. 

Our public school system, though perhaps 
the best in the world, is only a sort of an edu¬ 
cational ladder which leads from the kinder¬ 
garten to the university, and the chief pur¬ 
pose of the university, until recent times at 
least, has been to create a sort of an aristo¬ 
cracy of learned men whose duty it would be 
“to conserve learning.” 

Educational reformers insist that the aim 
of the school and university should not be 
simply to impart learning, but to give the 
child such a training as will prepare him to 
enter upon life. In a proper sense, this latter 
aim may be broad enough to include all the 
child’s requirements, but not without the 


CHRONIC FATIGUE 


49 


recognition of the fact that one of the most 
important of these requirements is protection 
against the various evil tendencies, physical, 
mental and moral, which have been trans¬ 
mitted to him from his parents. 

Race degeneracy has attained such propor¬ 
tions that the pathological element is becom¬ 
ing predominant. Medical inspection of 
schools carried out in a most extensive way in 
various countries has shown that fully 
seventy-five per cent of all children of school 
age present serious physical or mental de¬ 
fects. In many communities the proportion 
is very much higher than this. 

To correct these defects must be recog¬ 
nized as one of the special and most impor¬ 
tant functions of the school. No system of 
education can be considered complete which 
does not provide in every grade, from the 
kindergarten to the university, efficient means 
for detecting and combating ancestral tend¬ 
encies of an undesirable sort. 

Nesteroff found in a school numbering six 
hundred pupils thirty per cent showing symp¬ 
toms of neurasthenia, such as persistent head- 


50 


NEURASTHENIA 


ache, insomnia, palpitation, sudden neuralgic 
pains, etc. 

A very significant fact noted by Nesteroff is 
the increase of the proportion of neurasthe¬ 
nics with each advancing grade. For ex¬ 
ample, he found in the classes of a secondary 
school the following proportion of neuras¬ 
thenic children in the several grades: 


Preparatory class 
First 

Second “ . 

Third 

Fourth “ . 

Fifth 

Sixth 

Seventh “ . 

Eighth “ . 


. 8 per cent 

15 “ 

.22 

.28 


44 

•47 

58 

64 

89 


u 

a 

u 

u 

u 











How A Neurasthenic Should Live 

•fti’ 


In this chapter will be presented an out¬ 
line of the general course of life to be fol¬ 
lowed by all neurasthenics and by those who 
have a hereditary predisposition to neuras¬ 
thenia, although the characteristic features of 
the disease may not as yet have made their 
appearance. 

Children of neurasthenic or neurotic par¬ 
ents may, by the adoption of the mode of life 
herein outlined, escape the miseries endured 
by their parents and develop and maintain 
a degree of efficiency and endurance equal to 
that of the average normal person. 

A neurasthenic who desires deliverance 
from the wretchedness and inefficiency en¬ 
tailed by this malady must first of all re¬ 
solve to obtain recovery at whatever cost of 
effort or self-denial may be involved. Every 
harmful indulgence, every extravagant waste 
of energy, must be laid aside. Health cul¬ 
ture must be entered upon with all the earn- 

51 


52 


NEURASTHENIA 


estness and enthusiasm and thoroughness 
which are essential to success in any business 
enterprise. The recovery of health and the 
building up of physical and mental endurance 
and efficiency must not be regarded or treated 
as a secondary matter, but must be made, for 
the time being, at least, the object of con¬ 
centrated and undivided effort. 

Since neurasthenia, with other degenerative 
disorders is primarily a result of departure 
from natural or physiologic modes of life, 
the thing first essential is an intelligent and 
thorough-going return to nature. In other 
words, a neurasthenic must live the simple 
life. What this involves may be learned by 
a careful study of the following rules, which 
were formulated by the writer some years 
ago and published under the title, “The 
Simple Life in a Nutshell,” here somewhat 
expanded by introduction of a number of 
explanatory paragraphs. 

How to Live the Simple Life 

It is not possible to embody in a few simple 
rules all the instruction necessary to enable 


HOW TO LIVE 


53 


a person to lead a well-ordered and physio¬ 
logic life. It is possible, however, to formu¬ 
late in a few simple statements the more im¬ 
portant principles of conduct which experi¬ 
ence has shown to be most in harmony with 
the requirements of biology and human 
physiology. 

The fundamental idea of the simple life 
is based upon the fact that man, like all 
other animals, is subject to certain great bio¬ 
logic laws which rule his existence in the same 
inexorable way that gravitation acts upon the 
planets and the stars. The biologic laws 
which relate to man’s well-being as a mam¬ 
mal and as a member of the family of pri¬ 
mates cannot be ignored with any degree of 
safety any more than the air-man can ignore 
the laws of aeronautics, or the sailor the 
principles of navigation. In law we live, 
move, and have our being; when by attempt¬ 
ing to ignore the laws which especially relate 
to animal organisms of wild species and type 
we become outlaws and the same great prin¬ 
ciples of vital activity which support or main¬ 
tain our lives become destructive agencies 


54 


NEURASTHENIA 


through which we become a prey to disease 
and premature decay. 

The following rules do not represent a 
compilation, but are rather a crystallized ex¬ 
pression of the results of the study of the 
physical habits of many thousands of men 
and women. The writer has enjoyed a some¬ 
what extensive opportunity to study the sub¬ 
ject of this question and has intelligently 
undertaken to present in the following rules 
a summary of his observations: 

General Rules 

1. Give attention daily to cultivating 
health. It will pay. Study the conditions 
and the surroundings of the home and the 
business, and give careful thought to per¬ 
sonal habits and practices, with special refer¬ 
ence to their bearing on health. 

2. Recognizing that health of mind and 
body is one of the most valuable of all per¬ 
sonal assets, make every reasonable effort to 
maintain intact, and, if possible, increase the 
capital of physical and mental strength. 

3. Give to the body and its functions that 


HOW TO LIVE 


55 


care and study which you would accord to 
any other valuable and costly mechanism, so 
as to become familiar with its needs and the 
best means of supplying them. 

Eating for Health and Efficiency 

4. • Eat only natural foods; that is, those 
which are naturally adapted to the human 
constitution. The natural dietary includes 
fruits, nuts, cooked grains, legumes, and vege¬ 
tables. Natural food imparts to the body the 
greatest amount of energy, and maintains 
normal conditions of life. No animals except 
scavengers and men eat everything. We 
should follow our nearest relatives, the 
orang-utan and chimpanzee, in diet. 

5. Avoid meats of all sorts (flesh, fowl, 
fish, including “sea food.”). These are un¬ 
natural foods. They are all likely to con¬ 
tain deadly parasites of various kinds, and 
always contain countless numbers of noxious 
germs, “meat bacteria” or “wild germs,” 
which infest the intestines, cause putrefaction 
and other poison-forming processes, and in¬ 
oculate the body with colitis and many other 


56 


NEURASTHENIA 


diseases. These germs are not destroyed 
by ordinary cooking, such as stewing, broil¬ 
ing, frying, and roasting. 

The following table shows the number of 
the germs found in different meats obtained 
fresh from the market: 


Specimen 

Putrefactive Bacteria 

Per Ounce 

When 

Purchased 

After 20 hrs. 
at room temp. 

No. I Large sausage . 

12,600,000,000 

19,890,000,000 

16,800,000,000 

16,800,000,000 

1,293,600,000 

3,870,000,000 

3,781,200,000 

900,000,000 

11.340,000,000 

756,000,000 

5,040,000,000 

14,700,000,000 

19,212,000,000 

25,200,000,000 

22,500,000,000 

22,500,000,000 

21,000,000,000 

31,080,000,000 

21,000,000,000 

2 Small sausage . 

3 Round steak . 

4 Roast beef . 

5 Smoked ham . 

6 Hamburger steak . 

“ 7 Pork . 

8 Porterhouse steak . 

9 Sirlom steak . 

10 Tenderloin (well done) 

11 Tenderloin (rare) . 


6 . Take care to avoid an excess of pro¬ 
tein; that is, the albuminous element, which 
is represented by lean meat, the white of 
eggs, and the curd of milk. An excess of pro¬ 
tein promotes putrefaction, and thus intes¬ 
tinal autointoxication, the chief cause of “bil¬ 
iousness,” colitis, appendicitis, gall-stones, 
arteriosclerosis, possibly cancer, Bright’s dis- 


























HOW TO LIVE 


57 


ease, and premature old age. Ordinary 
bread contains a sufficient amount of protein, 
as do also most other cereals. Most nuts, 
also peas and beans, contain an excess of pro¬ 
tein, and should be eaten sparingly. 

A growing infant is supplied in the 
mother’s milk, which constitutes its natural 
food, with one calorie of protein for each 
pound of its body weight. Since an infant is 
building up its bodily tissues it must require a 
larger proportion of protein than is really 
necessary for an adult, hence, it may be safely 
said that one calorie of protein per pound 
of body weight is amply sufficient to supply 
all the actual needs of the body. 

This amount of protein may be repre¬ 
sented, in a person weighing 120 pounds, to 
be one ounce of dried protein. Such a 
quantity of protein is furnished by 28 ounces 
of milk; 8 eggs; 3 ounces of pine nuts; 4 
ounces of dried peas; 8 ounces of wheat 
meal; 37 ounces of potato; 4 ounces of al¬ 
monds. 

7. Eggs should be eaten in great modera¬ 
tion, if at all. They encourage autointoxica- 


58 


NEURASTHENIA 


tion, and thus often cause “biliousness.” The 
yolk of the egg is more wholesome than the 
white. 

8. Cow’s milk is not altogether suited for 
human food. A large proportion of invalids 
—nearly half, perhaps—suffer from “casein 
dyspepsia,” and cannot take milk without suf¬ 
fering from constipation, headache, “bilious¬ 
ness,” coated tongue, or other unpleasant 
symptoms which indicate intestinal autointoxi¬ 
cation. Such persons may sometimes make 
use of fresh buttermilk, sour milk, cottage 
cheese, yogurt cheese or yogurt buttermilk, 
with less difficulty, and even with benefit. Ex¬ 
cellent substitutes for milk may be prepared 
from nuts (almond cream, malted nuts). 

9. Animal fats, such as lard, suet, and 
ordinary butter, should be avoided. They 
are difficult of digestion, and promote intes¬ 
tinal autointoxication, and thus cause “bilious¬ 
ness.” To be wholesome, butter must be 
perfectly sweet, and should be made from 
sterilized cream. 

Persons who are not subject to casein 
dyspepsia are often able to digest sterilized 



HOW TO LIVE 


59 


cream more easily than butter. Persons who 
suffer from hyperpepsia—“sour stomach”— 
may take sterilized butter and cream more 
freely than those who suffer from slow diges¬ 
tion. When butter and cream produce pim¬ 
ples on the face, a coated tongue, or a bad 
taste in the mouth, they must be diminished 
in quantity, or omitted altogether. 

10. Vegetable fats are more easily diges¬ 
tible, and do not encourage intestinal autoin¬ 
toxication. 

Nuts, malted nuts, ripe olives and olive oil 
are excellent substitutes for butter and cream. 

11. Common salt, or chlorid of sodium, 
should be used sparingly. According to 
Richet and others, the food naturally contains 
all the chlorid of sodium actually required by 
the body, so that the addition of salt to the 
food is necessary only to please a cultivated 
taste. A safe rule is, The less the better. 
Persons who have dropsy, Bright’s disease, 
arteriosclerosis, gastric ulcer, hyperacidity, 
obese persons and epileptics should discard 
salt. 

12. Food combinations should be such as 


60 


NEURASTHENIA 


to give the proper proportion of the several 
elements—proteins, carbohydrates, and fats. 
Fruits and vegetables, as well as other com¬ 
binations of natural foodstuffs, agree per¬ 
fectly when mastication is sufficiently thor¬ 
ough to reduce the food to a liquid state in 
the mouth. 

13. The quantity of food should be 
adapted to the size of the person and the 
amount of work which he does. Never eat 
to satiety. A person of average height and 
moderately active requires 200 calories of 
protein (1/10), 600 calories of fat (3/10) 
and 1,200 calories of carbohydrates (6/10), 
or a total of 2,000 calories, or food units 
daily. This is furnished by the following: 
Bread, ioj 4 oz.; milk, 6 oz.; potatoes, 8 
oz.; butter, 2*4 oz.; rice flakes, ij4 oz.; 
cream, 2% oz.; apples, 7 oz. The proper 
quantities for any bill of fare may be easily 
calculated by aid of the “Battle Creek Sani¬ 
tarium Diet List” (published by the Good 
Health Publishing Co., Battle Creek, Mich. 
Price 25 cents, postpaid). Be careful to eat 
enough to maintain normal weight (see table 



HOW TO LIVE 


61 


in the “Diet List”). The body can dispose 
of a small excess, but cannot make up a de¬ 
ficiency. 

14. Weigh once a month. To reduce 
weight, eat less and exercise more. To gain 
in flesh eat more starchy foods or malt sugar. 
Eat one-third more when doing hard muscu¬ 
lar work. Mental work requires no more 
food than loafing. 

15. Food must be well relished to be well 
digested. According to Pawlow, “appetite 
juice,” which is produced by stimulation of 
the nerves of taste by palatable food, is the 
most important factor in gastric digestion. 
Eat when hungry, never because it is meal¬ 
time, or because invited to eat. 

16. Cane-sugar should be eaten only in 
small quantity. Large quantities cause acidity 
and give rise to gastric catarrh and indiges¬ 
tion. Sweet fruits, such as raisins and figs, 
honey and meltose or malt sugar, are natural 
and wholesome sweets and may be eaten 
freely. 

17. A sedentary life tends to produce in¬ 
testinal inactivity; that is, slow digestion and 


62 


NEURASTHENIA 


constipation; hence, the ordinary daily bill of 
fare should supply an adequate amount of 
laxative foodstuffs, fresh sweet fruits (not 
preserves), especially figs and prunes, acid 
fruits and fruit juices, fresh vegetables, bran, 
whole-grain preparations. 

18. Some fresh, uncooked food should be 
eaten at each meal in the form of fresh 
fruits or fruit juices, lettuce, raw cabbage, 
cucumber and other salads. 

19. Fresh vegetables and whole-grain 
cereals are needed to supply lime, potash and 
other salts. The blood and all living cells re¬ 
quire these salts, as do the teeth and the 
bones. The free use of cane-sugar and meats 
leads to lime starvation, because of the de¬ 
ficiency in lime. Avoid white bread. Eat 
baked potatoes freely. 

Recent experiments by Hindhede and 
others have shown that the potato is one of 
the most useful of all our vegetables, and that 
it may advantageously replace bread and 
other cereals to a very large extent. Cereals 
contain excessive acids. Persons who have 
a tendency to rheumatism, Bright’s disease, 


HOW TO LIVE 


63 


skin affections, and especially neurasthenics 
should make the potato a staple article of 
diet. The diet of such persons should con¬ 
sist chiefly of fruits and vegetables. Cereals 
should be very sparingly used. 

20. Avoid complicated dishes and great 
variety at one meal, but vary the diet from 
day to day, as the appetite may indicate. 

Regular Hours of Eating 

21. Eat at regular hours, so as to main¬ 
tain the normal intestinal rhythm which se¬ 
cures the daily movements of the bowels. 
Rather than omit a meal entirely, eat some 
fruit or a cake of colax (agar-agar) with 
fruit juice, or some other simple nutrient 
which will keep up the peristaltic procession 
and rhythm. 

Taking food into the stomach when food 
is already present is about the worst 
insult that can be offered to this greatly 
abused organ. The absence of appetite may 
be ordinarily regarded as an indication that 
the stomach still retains some portions of the 
previous meal. 


64 


NEURASTHENIA 


Hunger, as shown by Cannon, is due to the 
contraction of the empty stomach upon itself; 
hence, hunger is not ordinarily experienced so 
long as food is present in the stomach. 

22. The best meal plan is to eat twice a 
day. Eight to nine A. M. and three to four 
p. M. are the best hours; or eleven A. M. and 
six P. M ., if the retiring hour is necessarily 
very late. When breakfast is omitted or 
taken very late, it is an excellent plan to take 
some fruit soon after rising. 

23. If three meals are eaten, the heartiest 
meal should be taken at midday. The break¬ 
fast should be substantial, the evening meal 
very light, especially avoiding pastry, fats, 
rich sauces, and hearty foods. The evening 
meal should consist chiefly of ripe or cooked 
fruits, liquid foods, and such cereals as boiled 
rice or cereal flakes. 

24. Avoid iced foods and drinks. Very 
cold foods or drinks should never be taken 
freely, and must always be swallowed so 
slowly and in such small quantities that they 
will be warmed before reaching the stomach. 

25. Chew every morsel until reduced to 


HOW TO LIVE 


65 


liquid in the mouth. Thorough chewing de¬ 
velops “appetite juice” in the stomach and 
combats intestinal autointoxication, a most 
prolific cause of disease. Careful mastica¬ 
tion affords opportunity for the nutritive in¬ 
stincts to select the food and food elements 
adapted to the body needs, and to say, 
“Enough,” at the proper moment. Hence, 
give preference to dry foods. Sip liquid 
foods slowly, taking care to insalivate thor¬ 
oughly. 

26. Dismiss work, worries, business cares 
and annoyances while eating. Good cheer 
promotes good digestion. Anger, worry, ir¬ 
ritation, stop digestion. 

27. What we eat today will be walking 
about and talking tomorrow; hence all foods 
not known to be pure and wholesome should 
be avoided. Especially avoid rich and so- 
called hearty (hard to digest) foods, and 
such indigestibles as pickles, green olives, and 
preserves. 

28. Take three or four pints of water a 
day, including liquid food. 

Do not drink much at nor immediately 


66 


NEURASTHENIA 


after meals. Take a few sips whenever 
thirsty. 

Drink a glassful of water on rising in the 
morning, on retiring at night, an hour before 
each meal, and two or three hours after 
eating. 

Exercise for Health 

29. Live as much as possible in the open 
air. If compelled to work indoors, be sure 
that the living and work rooms have an 
ample, continual supply of fresh air. The 
lower the temperature the better, so long as 
the body is kept comfortably warm. Tem¬ 
peratures above 70° are depressing. The 
breathing of cold air is a continuous tonic; 
every breath is a tonic bath, a vital lift. A 
thousand breaths an hour count greatly to¬ 
ward health or disease, according as the air 
breathed is pure and cool, or impure and hot. 

30. Working in the open air is one of the 
best forms of exercise, especially working in 
the garden, digging, hoeing, pruning, etc. Do 
some good, hard muscular work every day, 
enough to produce slight muscular fatigue 
and free perspiration; but avoid exhaustion. 


HOW TO LIVE 


67 


Exercise out of doors is most beneficial and 
swimming in water at 76° to 78° is the 
best of all special health exercises. Rapid 
walking and hill climbing are excellent; stair 
climbing is good. 

31. One need not degenerate physically 
because his occupation is sedentary. Always 
sit erect, with chest held high and the small of 
the back supported. Sit as little as possible. 
Standing and lying are more natural and 
healthful positions than sitting. One may 
exercise while sitting at work by deep breath¬ 
ing and by stiffening the muscles of first one 
limb a few seconds, then the other. All the 
muscles in the body may be exercised in this 
way. 

32. Deep breathing aids digestion, en¬ 
courages liver and bowel action, develops the 
lungs, and purifies the blood. The only di¬ 
rections needed are: hold the chest high and 
breathe as deeply as you can ten or twenty 
times every hour, or oftener. The best 
“breath” gymnastics are swimming, hill- or 
stair-climbing, and rapid walking or running. 
Always breathe through the nose. 


68 


NEURASTHENIA 


33. In walking, always hold the chest high 
and carry it well to the front. Swing the 
arms moderately, and walk fast enough to 
hasten the breathing a little. Nine miles of 
walking a day at the rate of three miles an 
hour is the necessary amount for the average 
adult. Most housekeepers and laborers do 
more. 

34. Develop the abdominal muscles by 
some simple exercises, such as walking on tip¬ 
toe, with chest held high, or running round 
the room on all fours; or lie on the back, 
hold the legs straight and raise them to the 
perpendicular, repeating thirty to forty times 
three times a day. 

Lying on the back, raise the body from the 
lying to the sitting position, with the hands 
placed upon the back of the neck. Repeat 
ten to twenty times three times a day, gradu¬ 
ally increasing the number. 

35. If the abdominal muscles are weak¬ 
ened, so that the lower abdomen bulges for¬ 
ward, a tight flannel bandage, or more sub¬ 
stantial support, should be worn about the 
lower abdomen when on the feet, until the 


HOW TO LIVE 


69 


muscles have been strengthened by exercise. 

The Toilet 

36. Cleanse the mouth and teeth thor¬ 
oughly before and after each meal, on rising 
and on retiring. A foul tongue and decaying 
teeth indicate mouth infection and intestinal 
autointoxication and general low resistance. 

37. Bathe daily at night in warm weather. 
Twice a week in winter, take a warm cleans¬ 
ing bath before retiring. Apply olive oil or 
fine vaseline after the bath if the skin is dry. 

38. Take a short cold bath every morning 
on rising. This is an excellent tonic. Or 
take a cool air bath morning and night, rub¬ 
bing the skin with a dry towel. 

If the skin is irritated, apply Doctor Bulk- 
ley’s skin cream, of which the following is the 


formula: 

Lanolin. 2 drams 

Boroglycerid. 1 dram 

Cold cream. 6 drams 


If the skin irritation is very great, add five 
grains of carbolic acid and ten grains of men¬ 
thol to the above. Apply after bathing in 





70 


NEURASTHENIA 


cold weather, especially when using hard 
water. 

39. The hands, nose, and scalp also re¬ 
quire sanitary attention. 

Rub the scalp with the finger tips dipped in 
cold water twice a day. For the hands, use 
a good soap and rinse well with soft water. 
If rough, apply skin cream (see above). 

40. The bowels should move thoroughly 
three times a day, most naturally soon after 
each meal. Many persons move the bowels 
soon after rising. Train the bowels by trying 
to move them on rising and after meals. 

Most people suffering from constipation 
are persons whose bowels move once daily 
and who are suffering from intestinal autoin¬ 
toxication. Even persons who have two move¬ 
ments daily may be suffering from latent con¬ 
stipation; the bowel movements are belated, 
being constantly two or three days in arrears. 

Food is the natural laxative, hence con¬ 
stipation must be chiefly combated by regula¬ 
tion of the diet. The food may be assisted 
by use of agar-agar, Japanese isinglass (com¬ 
mercially known as colax) and by the use of 


HOW TO LIVE 


71 


sterilized bran. Lubrication of the intes¬ 
tinal tract is also very advantageous; this 
may be accomplished by the use of paraffin- 
oil, the commercial preparation of which is 
known as para-lax. 

The most laxative foods are those contain¬ 
ing the largest amount of cellulose. Acid 
foods are also to some degree laxative. The 
following table shows the amounts of cellu¬ 
lose found in different foodstuffs: 


Cellulose Content of Common Foodstuffs 


Vegetables 


Asparagus . 

Beans . 

Beets . 

Brussels Sprouts . 

Cabbage . 

Carrot (raw) . 

Cauliflower (steamed) 

Celery (raw) . 

Cucumber (raw) . 

Green Peas . 

Kohlrabi (raw) . 

Lettuce . 

Onion . 

Parsnips . 

Peas (dried) . 

Potato (baked) . 

Pumpkin . 

Spinach . 

Tomatoes . 

Turnip . 


No. of grains 
of cellulose 
in one ounce 

5.2 
4 

5.25 

7.85 

9.2 

4.9 

4.55 
7 

3.9 
9.35 
7.75 

3.65 

3.55 

8.65 
28.5 

5.45 

6.1 

4.65 
4.20 
6.6 






















72 


NEURASTHENIA 


Fruits 


Prunes (cooked) . 

Apples . 

Pears . 

Peaches . 

Plums . 

Cherries . 

Raspberries, red . 

Strawberries . 

Currants . 

Huckleberries . 

Blackberries . 

Grapes . 

Raisins . 

Raisins (stewed) . 

Oranges .. 

Bananas . 

Figs . 

Apricots . 

Gooseberries (stewed) 
Cranberries . 


Cereals 

Wheat (cooked) . 

Wheat Grits (cooked) -- 
Rolled Wheat (cracked) 

Fine Flour . 

Graham Flour . 

Oatmeal (cooked) . 

Barley (cooked) . 

Polished Rice . 

Unpolished Rice . 

Rye (small) . 

Corn Meal . 

Corn Flakes .. 

Beans (dried) . 

Peas (dried) . 

Lentils . 

Sterilized Bran . 

Graham Bread . 

Whole Wheat Bread — 



No. of grains 

Per cent 

of Cellulose 

Cellulose 

in one ounce 

2 

10 

1 

5 

3 

15 

1 

5 

1.5 

7.5 

2 

10 

7.4 

37 

2 

10 

4.6 

23 

12.2 

61 

5 

25 

1.5 

7.5 

1.7 

7.5 

1.7 

7.4 

2 

10 

.3 

1.5 

4.5 

22.5 

2.5 

12.5 

3.5 

17.5 

5 

25 


2 

10 

1 

8 

2 

9 

.3 

1.5 

2 

10 

10 

44 

4 

20 

.4 

2 

.75 

3.75 

3 

15 

2 

10 

2 

10 

8 

40 

5.7 

28.5 

4 

20 

40 

200 

1.2 

6 

1 

5 








































HOW TO LIVE 


73 


In some cases of obstinate constipation it 
is necessary to train the bowels to normal 
activity by introducing in the colon within an 
hour after breaklast, one or two pints of 
water at 8o°. Hot water relaxes and injures 
the bowel, but cold water improves the tone 
of the intestinal muscles and aids in restoring 
normal sensibility, which is often lost in cases 
of chronic constipation. 

41. Putrid, foul-smelling stools are an 
indication of intestinal autointoxication, and 
are due to an excess of protein in the form 
of meat, eggs, or to decay (stasis or stagna¬ 
tion) in some part of the colon. Such a con¬ 
dition always breeds disease and indicates 
need for a “change of flora.” 

The Neurasthenic Needs Plenty of Sleep 

and Rest 

42. Sleep eight hours each night. If not 
strong, or if neurasthenic, take a nap before 
dinner. Growth, assimilation, and repair are 
most active during sleep. 

43. Surroundings at night should be quiet. 
Sleep amid noise is not normally refreshing. 


74 


NEURASTHENIA 


On the side is the best position during 
sleep for most persons. Change sides. 

44. The bed should be neither too hard 
not too soft. Avoid feathers. The covers 
should be dry, warm, light and porous. 
Avoid overheating by excess clothing. Use 
a thin pillow and discard bolsters. 

45. Make the weekly Sabbath a day of 
complete rest from work. Spend most of the 
day out-of-doors if possible. Take a half-day 
off for an outing in the middle of the week. 

Clothing 

47. The clothing should be loose, com¬ 
fortable, light and porous. Restrictive cloth¬ 
ing is necessarily damaging, for the trunk of 
the body is continually changing in form and 
size. Wear porous, cotton or linen under¬ 
clothing next to the skin. 

48. Avoid waterproofs, except for tem¬ 
porary protection. Clothe the extremities so 
as to keep them warm and dry. Avoid too 
much clothing. 

Mental Hygiene 

49. Do not worry. The Power that 


HOW TO LIVE 


75 


made us can and does take care of us. There 
is no need to worry. The Intelligence that 
controls and energizes heart and lungs can 
rule our destinies and with our cooperation 
will lead our lives in ways where “all things 
work together for good” to us. Worry kills. 
Hope inspires, uplifts. Cheer up. 

50. Do not become self-centered. Avoid 
thinking or talking about ailments or other 
unpleasant things. Cultivate altruistic ideals 
and wholesome and optimistic thoughts. 

51. Exercise self-control and restraint in 
all things. Work uses energy moderately, 
the passions and the emotions enormously. 

52. Take a vacation when you dream 
about your work. 

Avoid Poisons 

53. Avoid poison-containing foods. Tea, 
coffee, chocolate and cocoa contain poisonous 
alkaloids which impair ifi^ligestion, damage 
the nerves, and promote disease of the liver, 
kidneys, and blood-vessels. Cereal bever¬ 
ages and hot fruit juices are wholesome sub¬ 
stitutes for tea and coffee. 


76 


NEURASTHENIA 


54. Condiments—mustard, pepper, pep¬ 
per sauce, cayenne, capsicum, vinegar, hot ir¬ 
ritating sauces, and spices of all kinds—must 
be wholly discarded. They irritate the 
stomach and cause gastric and intestinal ca¬ 
tarrh and gastric ulcer, colitis, and damage 
to the liver and kidneys. 

55. Discard tobacco, alcoholic beverages, 
“tonic drugs” and other nerve foolers. They 
are poisons which lessen efficiency and 
shorten life. 

56. Avoid nostrums and patent medicines. 
The habitual use of any drug is harmful. The 
most eminent physicians are now agreed that 
very few drugs have any real curative value. 
The essential thing are right habits of life. 

Suggestions 

57. For inactive bowels, knead the ab¬ 
domen well with the hands night and morn¬ 
ing, especially the lower side parts. Eat laxa¬ 
tive foods, especially fruits and nuts, and 
whole-grain “cereals.” Drink a glass of cold 
water or eat an orange on rising and retiring. 
Exercise the abdominal muscles. If neces- 



HOW TO LIVE 


77 


sary use a cool enema (8o° F.) within an 
hour after breakfast daily for a week or 
two. Use one and a half to two ounces of 
sterilized bran daily. Use colax biscuit 
(agar-agar) at each meal. Take one to three 
tablespoonfuls of para-lax (emulsion of Rus¬ 
sian paraffin oil) at night. Visit the closet 
regularly after each meal to train the bowels. 
When a “call” is experienced respond im¬ 
mediately. Five minutes may postpone 
action indefinitely. Support the feet on a 
stool before the closet seat. 

58. For a cold, take an electric light or 
other sweating bath on retiring; drink three 
quarts of water or weak lemonade daily and 
eat little but fruit for a day or two; and stay 
out of doors. Live in the fresh air and avoid 
colds. 

59. If sleepless or nervous, take a warm 
bath at 102° F. for one or two minutes, then 
cool to 93 0 to 95 0 ; continue half an hour or 
two hours if necessary. This rarely fails. 

60. If “bilious,” take several enemas, until 
the bowels are thoroughly emptied. Drink 
two or three quarts of water daily. Eat 


78 


NEURASTHENIA 


freely of fresh fruits and green vegetables. 
Avoid fats almost wholly for a few days, 
and diminish the amount of fats in the regu¬ 
lar diet. Discard milk. Make the bowels 
move three or four times a day. 

61. The best foods in the order of ex¬ 
cellence are: fresh, ripe fruits, cooked fresh 
fruits, cooked dried fruits, nuts, graham 
bread, rice, zwieback, toasted wheat flakes, 
potato, cauliflower, carrots, greens and other 
fresh vegetables, lettuce, cabbage, cucumber, 
honey, meltose, malted nuts, yogurt butter¬ 
milk, sterilized milk and cream, peas, beans, 
lentils, raised bread, sterilized butter. 

62. Eat, drink, sleep, exercise,—do all 
for efficiency. Said Paul, “Whether ye eat 
or drink, whatsoever ye do, do all for the 
glory of GodT A man can do credit to his 
Creator only in following the natural order 
of life intended for him. 


Toxic Neurasthenia 


In by far the great majority of neuras¬ 
thenics the disorder is simply one of many 
manifestations of a chronic toxemia that may 
be of various origins, or derived from several 
causes combined, the condition being ex¬ 
pressed by the term “toxic neurasthenia.” 
Chronic toxemia is, in fact, a dominant factor 
in nearly all cases of neurasthenia, either as a 
primary or a secondary cause. 

The poisons to which chronic toxemia is 
due may be derived from one or all of the 
following sources: i. The tissues; 2. food; 
3. intestines. 

Toxemia From the Tissues 

1. The world owes to the late Professor 
Bouchard, the great French physiologist, the 
formulation of the important truth that the 
body is a factory of poisons. Animal life is 
a vital flame. A constant burning is taking 
place in the tissues—an oxidation or combus- 

79 


80 


NEURASTHENIA 


tion in which the food plays the part of fuel. 
It is this constant burning which renders 
necessary the taking of food at regular in¬ 
tervals. To support the work of the body 
and maintain heat requires the daily burning 
of the equivalent of two and a quarter pounds 
of bread, or ten ounces of butter, amounting 
to an annual consumption of more than two 
hundred pounds of fat, or more than eight 
hundred pounds of bread. 

Combustion in the body gives rise to es¬ 
sentially the same products as burning out¬ 
side of the body. Bread or fat burned in a 
furnace gives rise, not only to heat, but also 
to smoke, ashes, and possibly imperfectly 
burned products. Corresponding products 
are formed when foods are burned in the 
body. Poisonous gases that are formed, espe¬ 
cially carbondioxid, are carried off through the 
lungs. The soluble solid residues, the ashes, 
are dissolved and carried off by the kidneys. 
Imperfectly burned products corresponding 
to the cinders from coal or wood fire may be 
left in the tissues, where they become a source 
of grave mischief. The imperfect elimina- 


TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


81 


tion of these poisons may be a cause of tox¬ 
emia and of chronic injury to the nerve and 
brain cells, and consequently to neurasthenia. 

Tissue work gives rise to uric acid, am¬ 
monia, and other poisons, and especially to 
fatigue poisons, all of which may become a 
cause of chronic tire and neurasthenia. 

Deficient breathing, deficient skin action, 
deficient liver and kidney activity, deficiency 
of the thyroid gland—all may lead to ac¬ 
cumulation of tissue toxins, a real autointoxi¬ 
cation. This condition necessarily exists in 
practically all adult persons who lead a very 
sedentary life. 

The presence of chronic autointoxication is 
usually shown by a dingy, inactive skin, by a 
scanty and highly colored urine; a stooped 
posture is common, and there is often lack of 
appetite, a bad breath, coated tongue, emacia- 
tion, and an appearance of general feeble¬ 
ness. 


Toxemia From Food 

Another source of systemic poisoning is 
one’s food, especially when large quantities of 


82 


NEURASTHENIA 


flesh food are eaten. Animal flesh closely 
resembles human flesh. It contains the same 
waste elements—uric acid, urea, and other 
tissue poisons. Since the tissues of the 
slaughtered animal live for sometime after 
the blood ceases to circulate, tissue poisons 
are present in beefsteak, chops and other 
flesh foods in much larger proportion than 
are ever found in living human tissues. The 
total of these extractives is put down by 
Gautier as about ten per cent of the total 
dried substance. Professor Hall, of Man¬ 
chester, England, has shown that a pound of 
beef and other meats contains about fourteen 
grains of uric acid, while sweetbreads con¬ 
tain as much as seventy grains. 

Tea, coffee, beer, with vinegar, pepper, 
mustard and other condiments, add to the 
burden of toxicity, overwhelming the elimi¬ 
nating organs and so leading to chronic sat¬ 
uration of the tissues with poisons and to 
neurasthenia. 

Toxemia From the Intestines 

The third source of poisons, the most im¬ 
portant of all in relation to neurasthenia, are 


TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


83 


the intestines. In the intestines, especially 
the colon, or large intestine, of practically 
all adult persons, active putrefaction pro¬ 
cesses are constantly in operation. 

No end of theories have been elaborated 
for the explanation of the headaches, back¬ 
aches, neuritis, and various paresthesias 
(numbness, tingling and other strange sensa¬ 
tions) to which neurasthenics are often verit¬ 
able martyrs. The only satisfactory explana¬ 
tion found have been the effects of various 
toxic substances developed in the intestinal 
tract by putrefactive organisms of various 
sorts. Roger enumerates one hundred and 
sixty different species of germs which thrive 
in the alimentary canal. Of these more than 
a third are poison-forming organisms that 
convert certain elements of the food, partic¬ 
ularly the protein, or albuminous elements, 
into toxic substances, some of which are tox- 
albumins and possessed of the virulence of 
snake venoms. The well-known skatol and 
indol, which give to the fecal discharges their 
characteristic odor, were shown by the experi¬ 
ments of Herter to be productive of head- 


84 


NEURASTHENIA 


aches of a most pronounced type. Labora¬ 
tory workers who have to deal with fecal dis¬ 
charges often suffer from headache as the re¬ 
sult of inhaling the odors emanating from the 
material undergoing examination. 

The headache and other discomforts aris¬ 
ing from constipation, and the promptness 
with which the unpleasant symptoms are re¬ 
lieved by a thorough bowel movement, af¬ 
ford evidence of the influence of intestinal 
poisons in producing neurasthenic symptoms. 

Constipation and Fatigue 

Doctor Lee, of Columbia College, New 
York, has for many years devoted his en¬ 
ergies to the study of the causes of fatigue by 
means of delicate and precise methods and 
appliances which register the exact effect of 
any drug or other substance which may be 
made the subject of inquiry. Doctor Herter 
sent to Professor Lee specimens of pure 
skatol and indol to be tested for their effect 
upon fatigue. Both were found to be power¬ 
ful fatigue poisons. Animals submitted to 
their influence quickly showed the well-known 


TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


85 


symptoms which result from the fatigue 
poisons produced by tissue work. 

How the Body Protects Itself Against Poisons 

That every person suffering from constipa¬ 
tion is not a victim of headache or neurasthe¬ 
nia is simply due to the fact that some persons 
are still able to deal with their colon poisons. 
The body possesses a remarkable mechanism 
for defence against poisons. The intestinal 
wall is a filter which, when intact, excludes 
poisons, just as the intact skin is a perfect pro¬ 
tection against the venom of the most poison¬ 
ous serpent. When the intestinal membrane 
becomes crippled or denuded by inflamma¬ 
tion, as in colitis, or congested and irritated 
through the use of irritating condiments or 
the habitual taking of laxative mineral waters 
or cathartic drugs, the filtering power is lost 
and poisons penetrate into the blood and 
reach the delicate brain and nerve cells, pro- 
ducing their characteristic effects. 

In addition to the intestinal filter, the body 
possesses other effective means of combating 
poisons. The liver is a poison destroying 


86 


NEURASTHENIA 


organ. Poisons absorbed from the intestine 
are conveyed by the portal vein to the liver 
before entering the general circulation, and 
are distoxicated, so that their toxic properties 
are to a very large extent destroyed. 

The thyroid gland, the suprarenal cap¬ 
sules, and doubtless other bodily structures, 
are also concerned in the defense of the body 
against intestinal poisons. The kidneys 
rapidly eliminate such toxic substances as 
have not been destroyed, as well as their 
distoxicated derivatives. 

So long as the poison destroying and elimi¬ 
nating mechanisms of the body are able to 
do their work efficiently, no poisonous effects 
are observed; but when large quantities of 
poisons are absorbed during long periods, as 
is the case with persons who are habitually 
constipated, the poison destroying and poison 
eliminating mechanisms break down. Then 
an accumulation of the toxins results, and 
general and local symptoms of poisoning 
make their appearance, often ending in neu¬ 
rasthenia. 

A constipated child is a cross, peevish, and 


TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


87 


neurasthenic child. Every up-to-date mother 
is acquainted with this fact and wisely applies 
theproper remedy. No competent nurse would 
think of giving a tonic or “pick-me-up” of 
any kind to relieve the irritability and nerv¬ 
ous restlessness of a constipated child. The 
strong fecal odor of the child’s breath, as 
well as the absence of proper bowel move¬ 
ments, affords indubitable evidence of the 
fecal intoxication from which the child is 
suffering, and suggests the appropriate 
remedy—the bowels must be relieved of their 
malodorous and poisonous contents. When 
this is done, the child quickly recovers. 

How strange that so little attention is given 
the condition of the bowels in adults and that 
headaches, languor, nervousness and other 
distresses should be attributed to a multitude 
of vague and occult causes, when so very 
tangible and sufficient a cause as a colon filled 
with putrefying excretions and remnants of 
undigested foodstuffs is so much in evidence! 

When a doctor is called to investigate the 
health of an infant, he first of all examines 
the stool. This practice is so universal and 


88 


NEURASTHENIA 


so well known that the nurse or intelligent 
mother always has the soiled napkin ready 
for inspection in anticipation of the doctor’s 
arrival. The stool of an infant should be 
odorless or slightly acid and yellow in color. 
If the doctor finds a foul odor and a dark 
color he knows without further investigation 
that the infant is ill. Putrefaction germs are 
flourishing in its colon and it is suffering from 
general poisoning. 

Significance of Ill-Smelling Stools 

Why, then, should black, foul-smelling 
stools in an adult be regarded with indiffer¬ 
ence? Their meaning is precisely the same 
in an adult as in an infant. The adult be¬ 
comes to a certain degree immune to the acute 
effects of colon poisons, but the chronic ef¬ 
fects are in no way mitigated by the long 
continuance of the constipated state. Gradu¬ 
ally the defensive powers of the body are ex¬ 
hausted and there comes the accumulation of 
poisons and the general vital breakdown, of 
which neurasthenia is only a single expression. 
Hardening of the arteries, cirrhosis of the 


TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


89 


liver, Bright’s disease, and premature old age 
are among the associated evils to which neu¬ 
rasthenics are subject. The same poisons 
which set the nerves on edge, which harass 
and cripple the brain, confuse the mind, up¬ 
set the temper, and change the character, 
work havoc with the delicate machinery of 
brain, liver, kidneys, heart, and every vital 
organ and set in operation a whole train of 
degenerative processes which leave no 
bodily organ or function untouched. 

The fact that some neurasthenics attain 
advanced age is no contradiction of these 
patent facts. Some persons are endowed 
with constitutions that are remarkably re¬ 
sistant to the attacks of poisons. The life¬ 
long neurasthenic who has attained great age 
belongs in the same physical category with 
the octogenarian tobacco or whiskey devotee. 
He is simply an uncommonly hardy individual 
who, under more favorable conditions, might 
have enjoyed a still more extended and an 
immensely more pleasant and efficient life. 

We must also remember that for every one 
of these long preserved neurasthenics there 


90 


NEURASTHENIA 


have been some thousands of others whose 
careers have been cut short by Bright’s dis¬ 
ease or arteriosclerosis or other degenerative 
maladies. 

It must be noted also that the long lived 
chronic invalid is often little better than a 
preserved specimen. By extraordinary care 
many of the ordinary causes of premature 
death have been avoided, so that existence, 
even though crippled and narrowed, is length¬ 
ened out to an unusual term. 

Foul Stools 

The fact that the bowels move daily or 
even more than once daily must not be re¬ 
garded as evidence that no intestinal toxemia 
exists. If the stools are foul smelling, this 
fact alone is ample evidence that active pois¬ 
oning is taking place. Let the skeptical 
reader consider for a moment what would be 
the result if the foul substances discharged in 
a bowel movement were in some way re¬ 
turned into the body. Suppose even that a 
person were for twenty-four hours shut up in 
a close room with the loathsome products of 


TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


91 


a single bowel movement. What visions of 
headache, nausea, loss of appetite, depression 
and other miseries rise at the suggestion of 
such a wretched experience! How much 
more active for evil must be the same putre¬ 
fying mass when retained in the colon, and 
sending into the blood its flood of horrible 
toxins of varied sorts and potencies! 

Latent Constipation 

While thousands, perhaps millions, of per¬ 
sons are consciously suffering from constipa¬ 
tion and constantly combating this condition 
by pills, mineral waters, and various irritat¬ 
ing drugs which purchase temporary relief 
at the expense of worse mischief later on, a 
much larger number suffer from latent consti¬ 
pation without being in the slightest degree 
conscious of the fact. The bowels move 
daily, but are always a day or two, or even 
several days, in arrears. The foul character 
of the stools, the fecal odor of the breath, a 
coated tongue, foul intestinal flatus—these 
signs are ample evidence of the retention of 
putrefying materials in the colon. 


92 


NEURASTHENIA 


Three Daily Bowel Movements Essential to 

Health 

The bowels should move at least three 
time a day. A movement after each meal is 
the normal intestinal rhythm, with perhaps an 
additional movement on rising. The proofs 
of this the author has presented elsewhere. 
The idea that frequent bowel movement 
is weakening is wholly erroneous. It is 
not the frequent movements of diarrhea 
which weaken the patient, but the germ 
poisons which occasion the diarrhea. The 
acquisition of the habit of tri-daily bowel 
movements will do more to help a victim 
of chronic fatigue out of his neurasthenic 
ruts than any other means at present 
known. No other change of habits pro¬ 
duces such immediate and striking results. 
This is not a random remark, but a carefully 
considered statement that is supported by the 
personal observation of results in hundreds of 
cases of chronic neurasthenia which had long 
resisted the most varied forms of treatment. 

When the bowels are made to move three 
times a day and are each time well emptied, 


TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


93 


the undigested remnants of foodstuffs and 
retained excretions do not remain long 
enough in the colon to reach a state of ad¬ 
vanced decomposition. Putrefaction poisons 
are produced only in small quantities, and 
still smaller amounts are absorbed. The 
body is at once relieved of the effects of the 
great flood of virulent toxins which have 
been daily and hourly sweeping in upon the 
tissues. A great handicap to the vital forces 
is removed. The liver, kidneys, lungs, skin 
and other excretory organs are relieved of an 
abnormal and most onerous burden. They 
are now able to devote their energies to deal¬ 
ing with the normal body wastes, so that the 
tissues are freed from both tissue poisons and 
intestinal toxins. Headaches, languor, de¬ 
pression, and bad breath disappear, along 
with the dark circles about the eyes and the 
dingy skin color, appetite returns, and life 
begins to seem worth living. 

An Incompetent Ileo-cecal Valve a Cause of 
Toxic Neurasthenia 

A discussion of toxic neurasthenia would 
not be complete without especial reference to 


94 


NEURASTHENIA 


a cause, a very potent cause, of this condition 
which has until quite recently been over¬ 
looked; namely, an incompetent condition of 
the ileo-cecal valve. 

The ileo-cecal valve is an interesting struc¬ 
ture placed at the junction of the small in¬ 
testine with the colon or large intestine. It 
consists of two parts; a circular muscle which 
acts as a sphincter and controls the passage of 
liquid material from the small intestine into 
the colon, and a mechanical part consisting of 
two membranous lips which, when the slight¬ 
est back pressure occurs, fall together and 
cover the opening of the small intestine into 
the colon, thus preventing the reflux of fecal 
matters from the colon into the small intes¬ 
tine. This valve is found in practically all 
mammals, from which fact it is fair to infer 
that its function is important in the economy 
of higher animal life. 

The alimentary canal of higher animals is 
divided into three parts, known respectively 
as the “fore-gut,” the “mid-gut” and “hind-” 
or “end-gut.” The fore-gut consists essen¬ 
tially of the stomach, in which the prelimi- 


TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


95 


nary work of digestion is done. The mid¬ 
gut consists of the small intestine, in which the 
real work of digestion is performed, and 
from which the digested foodstuffs are ab¬ 
sorbed. The end-gut consists of the colon. 

The Duties of a Check Valve 

The stomach may be aptly compared to 
a kitchen; the small intestine may be said 
to be the dining room, while the colon serves 
as a waste and filth receptacle. With these 
facts in mind the necessity for the presence 
of a check valve between the colon and the 
small intestine is clearly evident. Normally 
no putrefaction takes place in the small in¬ 
testine, so that indol and skatol and other 
products of putrefaction are not found in this 
part of the alimentary canal. But putre¬ 
faction of the contents of the colon is the 
rule in adults who subsist upon a mixed 
dietary. The larger the amount of al¬ 
buminous substances contained in the food 
—that is, the more largely the diet con¬ 
sists of flesh meats and eggs—the greater 
will be the amount of putrefaction in 



96 


NEURASTHENIA 


the colon, especially if the action of the 
bowels is sluggish—and this condition is al¬ 
most universally present among civilized peo¬ 
ple. So long as the ileo-cecal valve is intact, 
these putrefying materials cannot find their 
way back into the small intestine and the 
amount of poisonous matters absorbed will 
be comparatively small, for the reason that 
the colon is better prepared to defend itself 
against these poisons than is the small intes¬ 
tine. When the ileo-cecal valve is incompe¬ 
tent and putrefying materials find their way 
back into the small intestine, the body is 
flooded with putrefaction poisons, and most 
pronounced symptoms of intestinal intoxica¬ 
tion occur. This fact was pointed out by 
Adolph Schmidt, an eminent German medical 
authority, some years ago. Still earlier 
Kraus, Hertz and others called attention to 
the symptoms strongly indicative of intoxica¬ 
tion that are found associated with incom¬ 
petency of the ileo-cecal valve. 

Within the last few years the marvelous 
developments in x-ray technic have made pos¬ 
sible a very exact study of the ileo-cecal valve, 



TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


97 


so that its competency or incompetency may 
be readily determined by special methods of 
testing the condition of the valve. A careful 
application of this test in several thousand 
cases which have been made in the x-ray de¬ 
partment of the Battle Creek Sanitarium, 
under the supervision of the able Roentgen¬ 
ologist in charge of this department, Dr. J. T. 
Case, has shown that incompetency of the 
valve exists in about one person of six of 
those examined, all of whom were, of course, 
suffering from indigestion, constipation or 
some other disturbance of the stomach or in¬ 
testines. A careful clinical study of several 
hundred persons whose valves have thus been 
shown to be incompetent has shown beyond 
chance for doubt the close association be¬ 
tween this condition and chronic intestinal 
toxemia. The symptoms of toxic neuras¬ 
thenia have been found almost universally 
present, though in a considerable number of 
cases the neurasthenic symptoms have been 
largely overshadowed by still greater diffi¬ 
culties, such as gall stones, duodenal ulcer, 
gastric ulcer, and other organic affections 


98 


NEURASTHENIA 


which are the natural result of chronic in¬ 
testinal toxemia. 

The Treatment of Toxic Neurasthenia 

The treatment of this condition will be 
dwelt upon with considerable detail for the 
reason that it is applicable and, in fact, funda¬ 
mentally important in all cases of neuras¬ 
thenia, whether recognized as toxic or placed 
in some other class. The fact is, it is almost 
impossible to find a neurasthenic who does not 
show evidences of auto-intoxication or in¬ 
testinal toxemia. 

Chronic poisoning is, in the opinion of the 
writer, the dominant factor in all cases of 
neurasthenia, and hence the first considera¬ 
tion in the treatment of these cases is to rid 
the body of poisons so as to give the crippled 
nerve cells an opportunity to recuperate and 
repair the damages to which they have been 
subjected. A cell that is poisoned by putre¬ 
factive toxins from the intestine, or by re¬ 
tained tissue wastes, is unable to gather stores 
of energy from the blood like a normal cell, 
and may be so paralyzed that it cannot make 


TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


99 


use of the stores of energy that it still retains. 

There are three great objects to be at¬ 
tained in the successful treatment of cases of 
toxic neurasthenia: the suppression of in¬ 
testinal putrefaction, increased elimination, 
and improved tissue building. 

Colitis and Neurasthenia 

The most common form of colitis, pseudo¬ 
membranous colitis, has long been looked 
upon as a nerve disorder. It is a very fre¬ 
quent accompaniment of neurasthenia, and 
was thought to be due to some nervous dis¬ 
turbance. This view was doubtless the out¬ 
growth of the fact that this disease generally 
accompanied very marked neurasthenic symp¬ 
toms. The truth appears to be, however, 
that colitis is simply another consequence of 
the same causes which produce neurasthenia. 

Colitis is an infection of the colon due to 
the presence of certain microorganisms, a 
number of which, according to Doctor Tis- 
sier, of the Pasteur Institute, are capable of 
producing colonic infection. 

In general the germs which produce putre- 


100 


NEURASTHENIA 


faction are capable of giving rise to this con¬ 
dition. The chronic intestinal toxemia which 
accompanies neurasthenia, a dominant factor 
in a majority of cases of neurasthenia, is also 
associated with colitis, both as a cause and a 
consequence. Colitis, by producing a dis¬ 
eased condition of the mucous membrane 
lessens its ability to resist the poisons which 
are produced in abnormal quantities in the 
cavity of the intestine, since these toxic sub¬ 
stances readily pass through the congested, 
irritated or abraded mucous-membrane. 
Colitis is, then, a cause of neurasthenia and 
not a result of this condition. Colitis can be 
cured only by changing the intestinal flora. 

Changing the Intestinal Flora 

Every neurasthenic needs to have his in¬ 
testinal flora changed. That is, he needs to 
get rid of the putrefactive bacteria which are 
manufacturing poisons in his colon and to 
replace them by harmless acid-forming bac¬ 
teria, which not only protect the body by 
eliminating the growth of putrefactive organ¬ 
isms, but render important aid to bowel ac- 


TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


101 


tion by furnishing a normal stimulus to the 
colon by the harmless acids which they pro¬ 
duce. 


Not a Simple Task 

To read the advertisements of the commer¬ 
cial distributers of Metchnikoff’s Bulgarian 
milk tablets one would imagine the change of 
intestinal flora to be an exceedingly simple 
process. No one who has ever undertaken 
the task of changing the flora in a case of 
chronic intestinal intoxication will be able to 
subscribe to this view. To change the flora 
in such cases is indeed difficult, and often a 
tedious process. Nevertheless, it can be done, 
and with sufficient patience and persevering 
effort it may be accomplished in every case. 
It cannot be done, however, without the ap¬ 
plication of the most thoroughgoing meas¬ 
ures, and not one measure only but many 
must be applied, either in succession or in 
combination, as the individual case may re¬ 
quire. 

The following account of the method of 
changing the intestinal flora which has been 


102 


NEURASTHENIA 


worked out under the writer’s supervision and 
successfully employed at the Battle Creek 
Sanitarium in hundreds of cases is quoted 
from a recent medical paper by the author. 

How to Change the Intestinal Flora to Increase 

Bowel Activity 

Metchnikoff, one of the sa\ r ants of the Pas¬ 
teur Institute, after several years of extended 
research, the purpose of which was to ascer¬ 
tain if possible the reason for old age, 
reached the conclusion that the cause of 
senility is to be found in the degeneration 
set up by poisons resulting from putrefactive 
processes in the colon. He observed that 
animals with the longest colon have the 
shortest lives. His observations, which have 
since been confirmed by many other investi¬ 
gators, showed that the poisons which are 
produced by the decaying of undigested rem¬ 
nants of food in the colon cause hardening of 
the arteries, and degenerations of the liver, 
kidneys, brain, heart, and other organs, and 
are the chief elements of the old age process. 
The studies of Combe, Tissier, Dlstasso, 


TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


103 


Lane and numerous other investigators have 
clearly shown that these same putrefaction 
processes are the dominant factor in so-called 
neurasthenia as well as a variety of other 
chronic ailments. 

Putrefaction processes are the result of 
growth in the intestine of microscopic organ¬ 
isms, which Herter refers to as “wild” bac¬ 
teria. Parasitic growths are not necessary 
to a state of perfect health, but are intro¬ 
duced by means of milk polluted with barn¬ 
yard filth, flesh foods undergoing the first 
stages of putrefaction, stale eggs, special cold 
storage meats, preserved fish, old cheese, and 
other decomposing foodstuffs. 

Chronic infection of the intestine often 
owes its beginning to an attack of ptomaine 
poisoning through the use of canned meats or 
canned fish that are in a state of active de¬ 
composition. 

The first thing necessary, then, in the battle 
against intestinal intoxication, is to change 
the intestinal flora, thus getting rid of the 
wild bacteria and restoring the normal 
friendly bacteria with which Nature supplies 


104 


NEURASTHENIA 


the intestine within a few hours after birth. 
These bacteria are acid-forming ferments, 
and when present in abundant quantity the 
acids which they produce prevent the de¬ 
velopment of the poison-forming bacteria, 
thus combating intestinal autointoxication. 

It is not always an easy matter to change 
the intestinal flora; that is, to expel the per¬ 
nicious bacteria and to install friendly organ¬ 
isms. A very long and patient effort is re¬ 
quired, and when the change is once accom¬ 
plished the methods by which the change has 
been affected must be continued indefinitely 
to prevent a return of the wild bacteria to¬ 
gether with the consequences which result 
from the absorption of the poisons which 
they produce. 

Three things are essential for change of 
the intestinal flora: 

First, increased activity of the intestine; 
that is, more frequent bowel movement. 

Second, an anti-toxic diet; that is, the use 
of foods which will not undergo putrefaction 
in the colon. 


TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


105 


Third, the introduction into the intestine of 
friendly or acid-forming bacteria. 

We have not the space in this little volume 
to dwell at length upon the methods by which 
these three important measures may be suc¬ 
cessfully accomplished; the author has dealt 
with this subject more fully elsewhere. 

Briefly, the essentials may be summarized 
as follows: 

To Increase Bowel Activity 

The bowels should move after every meal, 
or at least three times a day. Increased 
bowel activity may be encouraged by use of 
the following measures: (a) increased bulk 
of food; (b) free use of fresh fruits and 
fresh vegetables; (c) regularity in relation 
to bowel movement; (d) special exercises to 
strengthen the abdominal muscles and en¬ 
courage bowel activity; (e) use of the 
enema, with the water at 80 degrees; (f) 

K 

the use of Japanese sea-weed or agar-agar, 
commercially known as colax, of paraffin oil 
(a specially purified emulsion and known as 


106 


NEURASTHENIA 


para-lax which has been found useful), and 
of wheat bran, and other food laxatives. 

Anti-toxic Diet 

Meats of all sorts must be discarded. In 
extreme cases, eggs and milk must also be 
omitted from the bill-of-fare, at least for a 
time. It is often most gratifying to note how 
quickly the tongue clears, the breath becomes 
sweet, headaches, depression of spirits, feel¬ 
ing of biliousness and other distresses dis¬ 
appear after the adoption of a strictly anti¬ 
toxic dietary. The advantages of the grape 
cure and numerous other fruit cures are 
wholly dependent upon the anti-toxic char¬ 
acter of these special diets. Putrefactive 
bacteria feed upon protein, and thrive espe¬ 
cially well on animal protein. When animal 
proteins of all sorts are carefully excluded 
from the dietary and when a low-protein diet 
is adopted, putrefactive bacteria are starved 
out, nearly all the protein taken as food is 
digested and absorbed, leaving no residues 
to undergo putrefactive changes. 

It is true that mucus, bile, and other in- 


TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


107 


testinal secretions may still supply material 
to feed the putrefactive bacteria, but certainly 
the intensity of the putrefactive processes in 
the intestine may be greatly lessened by care¬ 
fully excluding from the dietary all putre- 
scible material. 

It should also be noted that it has been 
shown by Kendall and others that when the 
diet consists largely of carbohydrates, espe¬ 
cially starch in the form of various farina¬ 
ceous foodstuffs, such as rice, potato, etc., the 
putrefactive bacteria, even though they may 
be present in the intestine, do not form toxins, 
but act with the friendly organisms in forming 
harmless acids, thus suppressing the putre¬ 
factive processes. 

This observation by Kendall explains the 
benefit derived in many cases from the use of 
raw or uncooked food. As a fad the raw 
diet idea has doubtless been overworked and 
may have done some harm, but there can be 
no doubt that the diet of primitive man con¬ 
sisted of uncooked foodstuffs, and the same is 
true of the big apes, man’s closest relatives 
in the animal world. Cooked starch is much 


108 


NEURASTHENIA 


more readily digested than raw starch. In 
order to entirely suppress putrefactive pro¬ 
cesses in the intestine it is necessary to take 
starchy foods in such form that a consider¬ 
able portion will reach the colon in an undi¬ 
gested state. This may be done by taking 
food in a raw or partially cooked state. 

The Scotch Highlanders prepare a dish 
which they call “brose” by pouring boiling 
water upon oat-meal and stirring it for a 
moment. This half cooked cereal is a staple 
article of diet with the Scotch. Through its 
laxative and anti-toxic properties it is highly 
promotive of the good health which Scotch 
Highlanders proverbially enjoy. 

Anti-toxic Ferments 

Doctor Tissier, of the Pasteur Institute, 
discovered the anti-toxic properties of acid¬ 
forming bacteria. Through his studies 
Metchnikoff became acquainted with the 
value of the Bacillus Bulgaricus and similar 
organisms as a means of combating putre¬ 
factive processes in the colon. Tissier also 
discovered that another organism known as 


TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


109 


the Bacillus bifidus possesses similar proper¬ 
ties and in a higher degree, since the Bacillus 
bifidus is a natural inhabitant of the intestine, 
while the Bacillus Bulgaricus is not. The 
Bacillus bifidus always appears in the intes¬ 
tine of an infant within six hours after birth 
in summer, and twenty in winter, and through 
the acids which it forms it protects the in¬ 
testine from the inroads of the putrefactive 
organisms. The Bacillus glycobacter, recently 
discovered by Wollman, of the Pasteur In¬ 
stitute, promotes the growth of Bacillus Bul¬ 
garicus and Bacillus bifidus by forming from 
starch the sugar which is essential to the 
growth and activity of the Bacillus Bulgaricus 
and Bacillus bifidus. 

These friendly organisms may be taken in 
special cultures, and when liberally and regu¬ 
larly used are found to be remarkably useful 
in establishing a normal condition of the in¬ 
testine, suppressing putrefaction and thus de¬ 
livering the body from the baneful influence 
of the putrefactive poisons which are respon¬ 
sible for a long category of human ills. A 
more extended discussion of the anti-toxic 


110 


NEURASTHENIA 


dietary and changing the intestinal flora will 
be found in other publications especially de¬ 
voted to these topics. 

Eliminative Measures Useful in Neurasthenia 

Increased bowel activity, the importance 
of which has already been pointed out, is 
without doubt the most important of all elimi¬ 
native measures in this class of cases. The 
intestine not only discharges from the body 
the unusable residues of foodstuffs, but serves 
as an outlet for the bile, the most highly toxic 
of all the bodily excretions, and is also the 
special avenue for the excretion of certain 
bodily wastes, particularly those containing 
iron and lime. When the bowels do not act 
freely these poisonous excretions are reab¬ 
sorbed, along with the toxins resulting from 
putrefaction. When healthful bowel activity 
is maintained, these poisons are promptly 
eliminated and thus the most important 
source of tissue poisoning is removed. 

But important eliminative work is per¬ 
formed by the skin, lungs and kidneys. The 
activity of these organs must be encouraged, 


TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


«111 

and there are no better means of accomplish¬ 
ing this than by natural methods that in¬ 
crease the activity of the skin, such as the 
electric light bath, the sun bath, and the air 
bath. The hot bath, the sweating pack, 
the steam bath and other sweating pro¬ 
cedures are also useful. The electric 
light bath is best of all, for the reason 
that it stimulates in the most powerful man¬ 
ner the circulation of the skin and is sus¬ 
ceptible to the nicest regulation. This bath, 
which was originated and first used by the 
writer more than twenty years ago, is now 
found in all the leading hospitals of Europe 
and is rapidly gaining favor in this country. 

The electric light cabinet also has the ad¬ 
vantage that it may be conveniently employed 
in one’s own home. The bath may be in¬ 
stalled in any ordinary bath room or sleeping 
room and is always ready to use at any mo¬ 
ment. 

Sweating measures should not be greatly 
prolonged in cases of neurasthenics, on ac¬ 
count of the depressing effect of heat when 
long continued. The duration of the bath 


112 


NEURASTHENIA 


should rarely exceed fifteen minutes, and 
often five or six minutes is quite sufficient. 
The primary purpose of the bath is to start 
vigorous sweating. It is not desirable that 
the sweating be continued long enough to pro¬ 
duce any considerable degree of depletion. 
The bath should be concluded by a cold ap¬ 
plication of some sort. The cold shower 
douche, the wet sheet rub, the cold towel rub 
or the salt glow are all appropriate finishing 
measures, and are most important tonic ap¬ 
plications. 

In persons who are highly sensitive to cold 
and do not react well to cold applications the 
cooling off may be accomplished by means 
of the neutral bath or graduated shower. The 
temperature of the application begins at 
about one hundred degrees, or body tempera¬ 
ture, and is gradually cooled down to 90 or 
88 degrees. The patient remains in the bath 
until the skin returns to its normal tempera¬ 
ture ; that is, until the heat absorbed from the 
heating bath has been wholly removed. After 
the bath the patient may rest for an hour and 
should then feel much refreshed. 


TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


113 


An effort should be made to train the skin 
to bear cold water, as by this means stronger 
impressions made upon the central nervous 
system may be made and more powerful tonic 
effects are secured. When the patient is able 
to endure strong cold procedures, the bath 
should be followed by moderate exercises for 
half an hour or so, to promote reaction 
and secure circulation. By repeated applica¬ 
tions of this sort the circulation of the skin, 
which is generally poor in neurasthenia, may 
be wonderfully improved. As the skin fills 
with blood, the congested internal organs are 
relieved of their surplus blood, congestion of 
the brain, liver, stomach and other viscera dis¬ 
appears, and gradually the normal balance in 
the blood distribution is restored. 

Improved Tissue Building 

The neurasthenic is constantly told that his 
nutrition is defective, that he needs building 
up. He seeks to accomplish this by means of 
tonics of various kinds, in most of which 
strychnia is the dominant element. This 
“building up” is purely factitious, for it is 


114 


NEURASTHENIA 


only through the use of natural physiologic 
agencies that tissue building can be acceler¬ 
ated or improved. Tonics make the patient 
feel better without making him better. They 
have been aptly termed “nerve foolers.” 
They produce a false sense of vigor and 
energy, which results in the further draining 
of the patient’s already depleted stores of 
energy and vitality. 

What the neurasthenic needs is tissue re¬ 
construction. He needs better nerve cells, 
stronger nerves, neurons with a better store 
of energy granules. 

In another chapter a series of rules has 
been given for the practice of simple life 
principles. There can be no doubt that the 
best way to aid Nature in the work of re¬ 
building a depreciated body is to be found in 
a thorough adoption and careful following of 
these “return to nature” principles. It is not 
necessary to repeat here what has already 
been written upon this subject. It is quite 
sufficient to say that every neurasthenic must 
lead the simple life, not temporarily for a 


TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


115 


few weeks or a few months, but continuously 
and permanently. 

A neurasthenic has a broken down consti¬ 
tution. He is not necessarily a physical 
wreck, but his body is crippled in a way that 
limits his energies and restricts his activities. 
And unfortunately the injury which he has re¬ 
ceived is more or less a permanent one, hence 
the remedy must be permanent also. 

When a constitution is once broken down 
under disease producing conditions the most 
that can be hoped for as a result of treat¬ 
ment is a restoration of the injured organism 
that will enable it to perform its work in a 
reasonably satisfactory manner under condi¬ 
tions adapted to the individual case. These 
favorable conditions when once established 
must be permanently maintained. 

Out-of-Door Living 

For one thing, the out-of-door life is as 
valuable in the restoration of neurasthenics 
as in the cure of pulmonary tuberculosis. This 
simple natural measure owes its effectiveness 
to the fact that it restores the patient to one 


116 


NEURASTHENIA 


of the conditions of primitive human life. 
Man is naturally an out-of-door dweller. 
Many of his maladies, including neurasthenia, 
are the result of in-door dwelling through 
which the vitalizing effects of light and an 
open-air life are lost. Exercise in the open 
air is indispensable to permanent restoration. 
Exercise must be taken judiciously and sys¬ 
tematically. There is nothing better than 
out-of-door work. The work cure is espe¬ 
cially valuable, because it occupies the mind 
as well as the muscles, and thus becomes to 
an important degree an antidote for the 
mental ills to which the neurasthenic above 
all classes of invalids is a prey. 

Cold Bathing 

The cold bath often accomplishes wonders 
for the neurasthenic. Every one is familiar 
with the agreeable effects of the application 
of cold water to the face and hands when 
one is weary or exhausted. The fusillade of 
impressions which fall upon the brain as the 
result of a general cold bath is through the 
excitation of the millions of “cold spots” of 


TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


117 


the skin, a most powerful means of exciting 
languid nerve cells into renewed activity. The 
reaction following the cold bath when prop¬ 
erly administered is an exceedingly agreeable 
experience and is not followed by the unpleas¬ 
ant depression which follows the use of drug 
tonics or stimulants. Cold is much more than 
a temporary stimulant. Continuous or re¬ 
peated applications of cold have a powerful 
influence upon metabolism. This is well 
shown in the improved appetite which comes 
with applications of cold water. Improved 
appetite is only an indication of improved 
assimilation, and means accelerated tissue 
building, which is the only way by which the 
neurasthenic can hope to be permanently 
lifted out of his wretched state and placed 
upon a durable foundation of good health. 

A cold morning bath properly adminis¬ 
tered is a complete antidote for the morning 
depression experienced by many neuras¬ 
thenics. It is of the highest importance, how¬ 
ever, that the bath should be taken in a proper 
way. The average neurasthenic would be 
little likely to receive benefit from a plunge 


118 


NEURASTHENIA 


into a tub filled with cold water. Such a bath 
would likely be followed by an aggravation 
of symptoms, increased pain, increased de¬ 
pression, increased disturbances of circulation 
shown by cold hands and feet, etc. A single 
trial would be sufficient to discourage further 
efforts in the direction of cold bathing. Neu¬ 
rasthenics are generally highly sensitive to 
the effects of cold water and on this account it 
is necessary that several important precau¬ 
tions should receive careful attention. 

Bathing Rules 

Here are a few rules which should be 
borne in mind: 

1. A cold bath should never be taken 
when one is tired or exhausted. 

2. Applications toward which there is an 
instinctive dread should in general be 
avoided. The bodily instincts generally 
crave things that are good for the body and 
repel things likely to do harm. 

3. General cold applications should never 
be made when the skin is cold, when a sensa¬ 
tion of chilliness is present, or when the 


TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


119 

hands and feet are cold or when the head is 
hot. In such cases the skin must be warmed 
by a warm bath, such as the electric light 
bath, or the hands and feet should be heated 
by placing in water and the head cooled by 
the application of a towel wrung out of cold 
water (notice-water). 

The Cold-Air Bath 

Generally the best time for a cold bath is 
immediately on rising in the morning. In 
many cases it is well to begin with a cold air 
bath. The patient gets out of bed, removes 
his sleeping garments, and walks about the 
room while rubbing the skin vigorously with 
the hands, swinging the arms about, hopping 
up and down, or exercising with light dumb¬ 
bells or Indian clubs. 

Feeble patients may lie upon the bed with 
the clothing removed and exercise by raising 
the legs, swinging the arms about, rolling 
over, deep breathing, etc. As soon as the 
slightest chilly sensation is felt the patient 
should return to bed, cover well and rest until 
good reaction occurs; that is, until warm and 
comfortable. 


120 


NEURASTHENIA 


In winter time a cold air bath may be made 
a most effective tonic measure. When the 
temperature of the air is very low the time 
of exposure may be made quite short and the 
body may be exposed three or four times for 
one or two minutes at a time. An important 
point is to secure a good reaction after every 
cold application. In warm weather cooling 
effects may be obtained by means of an elec¬ 
tric fan. 

The Cold Towel Rub 

An effective cold water bath may be taken 
in a variety of w T ays. A simple plan is the 
towel rub. This requires the services of an 
attendant in case the patient is feeble,but may 
be self-administered by a person of average 
strength. This bath consists simply of 
wringing a towel out of cold water and then 
rubbing the whole surface of the body with 
the wet towel until the skin is reddened and 
a good reaction produced, then drying well. 
A feeble patient should rest in bed for a half 
hour after. 


TOXIC NEURASTHENIA 


121 


The Cold Tub or Shallow Bath 

A more vigorous bath may be taken by 
standing or sitting in a bath tub containing 
two or three inches of cold water and apply- 
ing the water to the whole surface, with vigor¬ 
ous rubbing with the hands by the aid of a 
sponge or towel. Such a bath should be of 
very short duration, not more than a half a 
minute or a minute at the longest. With 
beginners the duration should not be more 
than ten or fifteen seconds. After the bath 
the surface of the body should be well rubbed 
with a Turkish sheet or towel until well 
dried. Persons with sensitive skins should 
apply white vaseline or some good unguent 
after the bath, so as to prevent the irritation 
which often results from frequent bathing, 
especially in cold weather, when the air is dry 
or when very hard water is used. 

A most excellent unguent for this purpose 
is the following, a formula which was kindly 
given us by Dr. L. D. Bulkley, the eminent 
skin specialist of New York City: lanolin, 
2 grams; boroglycerid, i gram; cold cream, 
prepared with white vaseline, 6 grams. 


122 


NEURASTHENIA 


In cases in which smarting or burning of 
the skin exists, a condition very common with 
neurasthenics, especially in cold weather, ten 
grains of menthol may be added to the above 
mixture. By taking care to coat the skin with 
this simple preparation after every bath the 
irritation which arises from drying and chap¬ 
ping of the skin and which exposes the deli¬ 
cate nerve filaments may be prevented. 


Nervous Dyspepsia, Gastric, 
Splanchnic or Visceral Neuras¬ 
thenia; the “Blues” 


The Chinese believe the seat of the soul to 
be the stomach. The ancients regarded the 
bowels as the seat of the emotions. The old 
Greeks called a man who was depressed a 
hypochondriac (below the ribs), while we 
say he is “down in the mouth,” because of the 
fact that the angles of his mouth are drawn 
down instead of up, as in smiling or laughing. 
There is really good basis for the ancient 
notions referred to. The viscera of the ab¬ 
domen are much more closely associated with 
character and mental states than we appre¬ 
ciate. 

We do not think with the stomach nor feel 
with our intestines, but the state of the 
stomach and bowels influences our thoughts 
and our emotions to a striking degree. The 
region of the stomach is the seat of the solar 
plexus, the great abdominal brain which ex- 

123 


124 


NEURASTHENIA 


ercises a controlling influence over all the 
functions of digestion, blood-circulation, 
elimination—all the automatic processes of 
animal life. The great sympathetic chain of 
ganglia is the center of the organic life of the 
body. 

Through the close association of the ab¬ 
dominal brain and the cerebrum there is an 
intimate connection between digestion and 
mental action. It is through this association 
of the cranial brain and the abdominal brain 
that mental states affect digestion so pro¬ 
foundly, and the reverse. Nausea and even 
vomiting may be produced by purely mental 
impressions. In like manner, disturbed di¬ 
gestion may react upon the mental state un¬ 
favorably. 

This association of the solar plexus and the 
brain explains in part the mental miseries of 
the nervous dyspeptic, but not wholly. The 
after-dinner drowsiness, nervousness and de¬ 
pression are to a large extent dependent upon 
the relation of the abdominal blood-supply to 
that of the brain. The large vessels which 
supply the stomach, intestines and other ab- 


NERVOUS DYSPEPSIA 


125 


dominal viscera are together known as the 
splanchnic vessels. These blood-vessels, in¬ 
cluding the portal vein and its branches, form 
the most capacious vascular area in the body. 
These great vessels are capable, when dis¬ 
tended, of holding all the blood of the body, 
twice the capacity of the muscles, and fifty 
per cent more than the skin. After one has 
eaten a meal, thev become distended with 
blood as the result of the physiologic 
congestion attending functional activity. 
Through lack of proper nervous regulation, 
the supply of blood to the various organs of 
digestion is in the neurasthenic abnormally 
great. The result is a deficient supply of 
blood to the brain during the early part of the 
digestive process. 

This fact explains the mental confusion, in¬ 
efficiency, drowsiness and sometimes faint¬ 
ness that follow eating in the case of gastric 
neurasthenics. 

Many gastric neurasthenics suffer from 
hyperacidity due to excessive secretion of 
gastric acid. With this condition is usually 
associated an excessive secretion of fluid, as 


126 


NEURASTHENIA 


the result of which an abnormal amount of 
fluid is withdrawn from the blood, which still 
further decreases the supply of blood to the 
brain. How serious a matter this may be 
will be realized when it is recalled that the 
total amount of liquid abstracted from the 
blood in the formation of the digestive fluids 
during a single day may amount to five quarts 
or more. 

Over activity or too prolonged activity of 
the brain, especially worry and harassment 
of the mind, unquestionably excite the ab¬ 
dominal brain to a harmful degree and lead 
to gastric and other visceral disturbance. 
Many gastric neurasthenics are able to digest 
an ordinary meal without difficulty when the 
mind is at ease, but lose both appetite and 
digestive power as soon as an unpleasant 
emotion takes possession of the mind. The 
writer recalls the case of a man who was un¬ 
able to eat for several days after encounter¬ 
ing an offensive and malodorous object in 
his garden. He at once began vomiting. For 
a number of days whenever he sat down to 
the table to eat, a mental picture of the of- 


NERVOUS DYSPEPSIA 


127 


fensive object rose in his mind, he became 
nauseated, and was obliged to leave the table 
immediately, and would vomit until ex¬ 
hausted. 

Pawlow has shown the intimate relation 
between the brain and the stomach in the pro¬ 
duction of appetite juice and the dependence 
of good stomach function upon agreeable 
sensations associated with food and eating. 
The gastric neurasthenic is to an abnormal 
degree susceptible to these influences and 
hence needs to be informed of the importance 
of giving heed to these relations in his eating 
habits. 

The Splanchnic Pool 

But there are still other factors, largely 
mechanical, which play a most important part 
in the phenomena of this diseased condition. 
The splanchnic circulation is subjected to me¬ 
chanical as well as to nervous control. The 
large vessels which compose the splanchnic 
circulation are supported and compressed by 
the muscular walls of the abdomen. It is 
this support and pressure which prevent the 
vessels from becoming over-distended with 


128 


NEURASTHENIA 


blood when the body is in the upright posi¬ 
tion, thus depriving the rest of the body of 
the needed blood-supply. Without this sup¬ 
port, the erect position, especially if sud¬ 
denly assumed, would give rise to pallor and 
faintness because of the withdrawal of blood 
from the brain. This often occurs in gastric 
neurasthenics of a pronounced type. This is 
one cause and explanation of the vertigo to 
which this class of neurasthenics are much 
subject. These symptoms are most likely 
to occur soon after eating because of the ac¬ 
cumulation of blood in the vessels of the 
stomach and intestine resulting from the ex¬ 
citation of the digestive glands. Such per¬ 
sons often learn by experience that complete 
temporary relief may be obtained by lying 
down. 

Weakened Abdominal Muscles 

An examination of these pronounced cases 
shows a marked weakness of the abdominal 
muscles. Generally there is marked prolapse 
of the abdominal organs and a characteristic 
figure and standing pose. 


NERVOUS DYSPEPSIA 


129 


Weakness of the trunk muscles, resulting in 
a sagging of the abdominal wall and a pro¬ 
lapse of the viscera, must be regarded as one 
of the causes of gastric or splanchnic neuras¬ 
thenia, one of the most common results of a 
sedentary life. The deforming bulge of the 
lower abdomen is most commonly seen in 
persons of sedentary habits. It is most 
frequent in women, but professional men 
of all classes very frequently present the 
same ungainly shape of body and suffer from 
the natural consequence—splanchnic engorge¬ 
ment and visceral neurasthenia. 

Interference with Functions of Diaphragm 

A factor w r hich adds to the injury resulting 
from defective development of the trunk 
muscles is the interference with the normal 
functions of the diaphragm in breathing. 
This great muscle, which forms the partition 
between the thorax or chest and the abdomi¬ 
nal cavity, is not simply an organ of respira¬ 
tion. The diaphragm in its downward move¬ 
ments not only draws air into the lungs by an 


130 


NEURASTHENIA 


action resembling that of the piston of a 
pump, but, like a double pump, it possesses a 
double effect, at the same time compressing 
the liver, stomach and other viscera against 
the tense abdominal wall and thus emptying 
them of blood and so assisting the portal cir¬ 
culation, propelling the venous blood of the 
abdomen toward the heart. 

How Blood Stagnation Occurs 

When the abdominal muscles are weak and 
relaxed through lack of tone, or when they 
are relaxed by a stooped position in sitting 
or standing, the movements of the diaphragm 
are necessarily rendered ineffective and have 
little influence upon the abdominal circula¬ 
tion. The result is that the blood stagnates 
in the liver, spleen, stomach and other vis¬ 
cera. Blood stagnation always means an ac¬ 
cumulation of toxins. The oxygen of the 
blood is consumed and a condition closely 
bordering on asphyxia results. The half 
asphyxiated viscera cannot properly perform 
their functions, digestion fails, the liver lags 


NERVOUS DYSPEPSIA 


131 


in its work of destroying poisons and purify¬ 
ing the blood. The colon, the movements of 
which are greatly aided by the movements of 
the diaphragm, becomes inactive, stasis or 
stagnation occurs, and colitis is the natural re¬ 
sult, with chronic intestinal toxemia and a 
growing accumulation of physical discomforts 
and disabilities. 

Effects of Corset Wearing 

Corset wearing in women, compression of 
the waist with belts sometimes practiced by 
men, and other conditions are potent in break¬ 
ing down the blood circulating function of the 
diaphragm and thus increasing the congestion 
of the great sympathetic centers, producing 
irritation with reflex disturbances of the cen¬ 
tral nervous system, which shows itself in a 
great variety of mental and nervous symp¬ 
toms, such as coldness of the hands and feet, 
tingling and numb sensations, blushing of the 
face and head, mental dullness, irritability, 
insomnia, fidgets, and other neurasthenic 
miseries, to say nothing of the more serious 


132 


NEURASTHENIA 


structural and organic changes which later 
appear in the liver, stomach, spleen and kid¬ 
neys. 

Congestion of the Solar Plexus 

In certain cases the congestion of the solar 
plexus and other sympathetic ganglia, espe¬ 
cially those located near the umbilicus, be¬ 
comes so great as to become the source of 
much distress and uneasiness. Extreme ten¬ 
derness at the pit of the stomach and about 
the umbilicus, frequently accompanied by a 
palpitation of the aorta in the same region, 
creates a suspicion of the existence of aneur¬ 
ism of the abdominal aorta, an error in diag¬ 
nosis in which even physicians are not infre¬ 
quently led. In these cases the abdominal 
muscles, instead of being relaxed are not in¬ 
frequently in a state of spasm, the result of 
reflex stimulation from the irritated sympa¬ 
thetic centers. These patients always find 
that the palpitation increases after eating and 
when obliged to stand long on their feet. 
After the meal the pulsation of the aorta is 
so violent as to produce actual physical dis¬ 
turbances. Exercise upon the feet, especially 


NERVOUS DYSPEPSIA 


133 


after eating, is accompanied by backache, in¬ 
creasing coldness, and clamminess of the 
hands and feet so long as the exercise is con¬ 
tinued, relief being obtained only by a recum¬ 
bent posture. 

Over-Eating Plays Important Part 

Over-eating, hasty eating with neglect to 
properly masticate food, overloading the 
stomach by over drinking of liquids at meals, 
and chronic constipation with the resulting 
colitis—these are frequently among the active 
factors in the development of nervous de¬ 
pression. 

Treatment of Splanchnic Neurasthenia 

The rational treatment of visceral neuras¬ 
thenia demands first of all development of 
the muscles of the trunk and training in cor¬ 
rect posture. These two things are, in fact, 
the most essential features of the successful 
management of these cases. A case which 
illustrates the truth of this statement first 
came under the writer’s professional care 
some thirty years ago. The patient was a 


134 


NEURASTHENIA 


great sufferer from typical visceral neuras¬ 
thenia. Insomnia, despondency and physical 
inefficiency reduced him to a most wretched 
condition. In spite of the most thorough ap¬ 
plication of hydrotherapy, together with other 
physiologic measures, including careful regu¬ 
lation of diet, this patient made very little im¬ 
provement and after three months returned 
to his home without material change for the 
better. Three years later the same patient 
reappeared and reported that despite various 
changes of climate and following the advice 
of a great many prominent physicians he had 
consulted, his condition was practically the 
same as when he was first seen. 

Cure by Correction of Posture 

In the meantime the writer had made a 
careful study of the effect of posture and 
muscular development in these cases, and 
recognized at once the characteristic outline, 
as the patient stood with flat chest, rounded 
shoulders and bulging lower abdomen. The 
patient was at once given a lesson in correct 
sitting and standing and was taught a variety 


NERVOUS DYSPEPSIA 


135 


of exercises for the development of the ab¬ 
dominal muscles. An abdominal supporter 
was applied to hold the viscera in place while 
the muscles were being developed, with 
the result that in six weeks the patient de¬ 
clared himself substantially well and re¬ 
turned to his home. A year or two later 
when we were on a visit to Boston the pa¬ 
tient called at our hotel and reported him¬ 
self to be in perfect health. He attributed 
his recovery entirely to change of posture. 
He declared he felt immediately relieved as 
soon as the chest was lifted and the abdomi¬ 
nal muscles drawn in and held in place. This 
has been the experience of many hundreds 
of patients who have come under the writer’s 
care in the past twenty-five years. 

Always Carry Chest High 

The accompanying cuts show correct and 
incorrect standing and sitting position and 
also indicate a simple method for acquiring 
a correct position in sitting and standing. It 
must be constantly held in mind that the 


136 


NEURASTHENIA 


chest is always to be carried high. By this 
means the abdominal muscles are rendered 
tense and thus form a firm resisting wall 
against which the abdominal viscera may be 
pressed by the descending diaphragm. 

A Simple Method of Acquiring a Correct 

Standing Position 

In a correct standing position a plumb line 
dropped from the ear should fall just back of 
the first joint of the great toe. Many per¬ 
sons stand with the hips placed so far for¬ 
ward that if the plumb line were dropped 
from the ear it would fall opposite the heel. 
In this position the chest is flattened, the ab¬ 
dominal muscles are relaxed, and the lower 
abdomen protrudes. In a correct position, the 
chest is carried well forward, the hips are 
held well back. The back is quite strongly 
concave and the anterior wall of the trunk is 
convex. The abdominal muscles are well 
drawn in. This position may be secured with¬ 
out the aid of an instructor by the following 
method: 

Standing with the back against a wall or 


How to Acquire a Correct Standing Position 



Wrong Position 



Position 1, for Correct Posture 

















How to Acquire a Correct Standing Position 



Position 2 


Position 3 







































\v» 




















































NERVOUS DYSPEPSIA 


137 


a door, brace the heels, hips, shoulders, back 
of head, and the little finger side of each hand 
firmly against the wall. Now push the 
shoulders forward away from the wall by 
bending the head backward, until the eyes 
look straight up to the ceiling, keeping the 
heels, hips and hands firmly pressed against 
the wall. Next brace the hands firmly against 
the wall so as to fix the muscles of the trunk; 
then bring the head forward away from the 
wall, drawing down the chin without allow¬ 
ing the shoulders to move backward. 

The poise of the body will now be found 
very nearly correct but slightly exaggerated. 
Relax the muscles slightly while still holding 
the chest up; step out from the wall, swing¬ 
ing the arms, and the result will be a perfect 
standing and walking poise. Persons past 
middle life whose occupations have been 
sedentary, especially those who have been 
occupied with desk work, are generally flat 
chested and round shouldered to a very 
marked degree. Not infrequently in such 
cases so extensive changes of the muscles and 
bones have occurred that the form of the body 


138 


NEURASTHENIA 


has become fixed and cannot be entirely cor¬ 
rected. This is especially true in cases in 
which ossification of the cartilages of the 
ribs has taken place. Often in such cases 
however, very great improvement may be 
secured and the benefit to be derived from an 
approximate approach to correct attitude is 
so great that the effort is well worth while. 

How to Acquire Correct Sitting Attitude 

After having acquired a correct standing 
attitude it is easy to acquire a correct posi¬ 
tion of sitting. One soon learns to recognize 
the “feeling” of the correct position. Once 
acquired it is very easy by a simple voluntary 
effort to at once assume a correct poise, no 
matter what the general posture of the body 
may be. The important points are that the 
chest should be held high and the abdominal 
muscles well drawn in. 

When a correct poise is maintained in sit¬ 
ting the trunk of the body will touch the back 
of the seat only at the upper and lower parts. 
In a chair with a straight back the trunk of 
the body will touch the back of the seat only 





Incorrect Sitting Position 









Correct Sitting Position 





















NERVOUS DYSPEPSIA 


139 


at the top and bottom; the central portion 
of the trunk will be held free from the chair 
back, but to maintain such an attitude be¬ 
comes exceedingly tiresome, for it necessitates 
the persistant contraction of the muscles of 
the back, hence the back of chairs, settees 
or other seats should have a forward curve 
so that the central portion of the trunk may 
be supported. This will obviate the necessity 
for continued muscular effort in sitting and 
will in consequence greatly add to the comfort 
and render the seat more comfortable and 
restful. 

Many chairs are made with hollow backs 
which are in the highest degree objectionable. 
Most chairs are constructed with reference 
to artistic effects rather than to meet physio¬ 
logic needs. A very effective chair may be 
formed by placing a cushion in position to 
support the “hollow of the back.” 

Most Chairs Unscientific 

A very simple exercise will enable any one 
easily to put himself in a correct sitting posi¬ 
tion. The various steps in the procedure 


140 


NEURASTHENIA 


are as follows: Sitting in a chair, place 
hands over the hips with thumbs bent 
forward as far as possible, with the head 
thrown back so that the eyes look straight to¬ 
ward the ceiling. While in this position make 
very hard pressure with the thumbs and main¬ 
tain this pressure by bringing the body up 
into position; as the trunk is raised the chin is 
drawn down. The purpose of making pres¬ 
sure with the thumbs is to keep the trunk 
rigid, so that when the correct position is at¬ 
tained only the upper and lower parts of the 
trunk will touch the back of the chair, while 
the central part of the back, the so-called 
“small of the back,” is held forward some 
inches. The chest will be found to be held 
well up and the abdominal muscles drawn in. 
If now a small cushion is placed behind the 
back it will be found that the chest still re¬ 
mains elevated after the muscles are relaxed, 
because the back is prevented from receding. 
The maintenance of the correct position in 
standing and walking is of the highest import¬ 
ance as a means of preserving health, and 
must be kept constantly in mind by persons 


NERVOUS DYSPEPSIA 


141 


suffering from prolapse of the abdominal 
organs and splanchnic neurasthenia. 

The Abdominal Supporter 

A properly constructed and well adjusted 
abdominal supporter is of the greatest ser¬ 
vice in these cases. The purpose of the ab¬ 
dominal supporter is not simply to hold in 
position the abdominal viscera, for this can 
be accomplished only to a slight degree, but 
the real advantages gained from the abdomi¬ 
nal supporter are chiefly two. 

The first is increase of the intra-abdomi¬ 
nal tension, whereby the large vessels of the 
abdomen are supported, thus preventing an 
undue accumulation of blood, which neces¬ 
sarily occurs when the walls of the abdo¬ 
men are relaxed. This advantage is chiefly 
felt during inspiration, when by descent of 
the diaphragm the viscera are strongly com¬ 
pressed and emptied of their blood. By the 
combined compression below the diaphragm 
and suction above the diaphragm the blood is 
efficiently aided in its progress toward the 
heart, thus relieving the visceral congestion, 


142 


NEURASTHENIA 


which by giving rise to visceral irritation is 
a source of a multitude of backaches, side- 
aches, leg-aches, and other miseries from 
which these patients suffer. 

Proper Support for the Abdomen 

The second advantage of the abdominal 
supporter, and one of no small importance, 
is the assistance it renders to the patient in 
his efforts to maintain a correct posture. 
The pressure of the supporter is a constant 
suggestion to the wearer to sit erect. When¬ 
ever the chest is allowed to drop, the de¬ 
flection of the trunk renders the supporter 
uncomfortable and thus prompts the wearer 
to assume a correct posture. 

Every visceral neurasthenic will be bene¬ 
fited by the wearing of a good supporter, at 
least during the first months of treatment, 
until the abdominal muscles become suffi¬ 
ciently strengthened and the patient suffi¬ 
ciently trained to make the maintenance of 
the correct posture possible without the aid 
of the supporter. With persons who are 
considerably past middle life and with whom 


INCLINED TABLE EXERCISES 



Figure 1 



Figure 2 






















. 








. •• , 














' ‘ 


























NERVOUS DYSPEPSIA 


143 


the abdominal muscles have become so weak¬ 
ened that development to a degree of efficient 
service is no longer possible, and especially in 
those cases in which the spine has become 
straight and rigid, the normal anterior lum¬ 
bar curve having been destroyed by habitual 
standing and sitting in a relaxed or stooped 
posture, the abdominal supporter must be 
worn permanently. The spinal rigidity is 
also sometimes the result of chronic arthritis 
of the vertebrae. These cases also require the 
use of the abdominal supporter, which often 
affords very great comfort through relief of 
strain upon the nerves of the mesentery, 
which are rendered painfully sensitive by the 
chronic congestion of the sympathetic ganglia. 

Curative Exercises 

Among the most important of all the cura¬ 
tive measures which can be brought to bear 
in these cases are special exercises for the 
development of the muscles of the trunk, and 
especially the abdominal muscles. All exer¬ 
cises of the trunk which are taken with the 
chest held well forward and the abdominal 


144 


NEURASTHENIA 


muscles held in are beneficial. But most 
valuable of all are exercises taken with the 
body in a reclining position. For the best ef¬ 
fect the body should be supported at an angle 
of about 45 degrees, with the head low. In 
this position, gravitation renders valuable as¬ 
sistance, since through its influence the pro¬ 
lapsed viscera are restored to their position in 
the upper part of the abdominal cavity and 
the size and the weight of the viscera are 
greatly lessened by the drainage of the ab¬ 
dominal cavity into the upper part of the 
body, which empties the viscera of their blood. 
An ordinary ironing board may be easily con¬ 
verted into an exercise table by resting one 
end upon the floor and the other upon the 
window sill or the side of a bed. 

The writer has devised an exercise table 
which has been found very convenient for ex¬ 
ercises for developing muscles of the trunk 
and for correcting spinal curvatures, which 
are often a result of deficient development of 
the trunk muscles. This table and the vari¬ 
ous exercises which may be taken with it are 
illustrated in accompanying cuts. 


INCLINED TABLE EXERCISES 



Figure 3 



Figure 4 



















































NERVOUS DYSPEPSIA 


145 


Special Exercises for Neurasthenics With the 

Inclined Table 

The foot of the table should be raised 
about eighteen inches. The position of the 
patient should be that shown in Figure i, the 
head resting on the floor, the body supported 
by the inclined surface of the table. 

Replacement and Decongesting Exercises 

The purpose of these exercises is to restore 
the stomach and colon to the upper part of 
the abdomen where they belong and to drain 
the congested organs of their surplus blood. 
The body is prevented from slipping down by 
passing the feet through the loops. By grasp¬ 
ing the hand rests at the sides of the table the 
body may be easily lifted back into position 
if it slides down. The chest should be held 
high during all the exercises. To aid in keep¬ 
ing the chest up it is well to place a pillow or 
a pad at the “small of the back.” By this 
means the chest may be fixed in an elevated 
position. The large muscles of the abdomen 
are made tense and thus the act of breathing 
becomes more efficient. While holding the 


146 


NEURASTHENIA 


body in this position take the following ex¬ 
ercises : 

Exercise 1 

1. Breathe deeply while percussing and 
beating the abdomen vigorously. 

Exercise 2 

2. Deep breathing, hands grasping the 
sides of the table, pull with the hands while 
breathing out. This fixes the chest in a high 
position and so secures full action of the ab¬ 
dominal muscles. 

Exercise 3 

3. Deep breathing, hands clasped over 
lower abdomen, pressing firmly during both 
inspiration and expiration. This strengthens 
the breathing muscles. 

Exercise 4 

4. Deep breathing with hands clasped; 
make pressure upon the abdomen with the 
little finger side of the hands, starting just 


INCLINED TABLE EXERCISES 



Figure 5 



Figure 6 





















NERVOUS DYSPEPSIA 


147 


above the pubes and working slowly upward 
an inch or two at each breath. The pressure 
should be continuous during expiration and 
inspiration. Repeat six or eight times. This 
lifts the prolapsed stomach and bowels into 
position. 

Effect of Breathing Exercises 

The effect of the above exercises, if they 
are properly taken, is to aid gravity in lifting 
the prolapsed stomach and bowels and other 
organs into position. It is very important 
that they should be taken before taking other 
exercises, so that the prolapsed organs 
may be restored to their normal place, as ex¬ 
ercises taken with the organs in a wrong posi¬ 
tion are likely to do quite as much harm as 
good. 

Exercises for Strengthening the Muscles of the 

Neck and Trunk 

The following series is carefully graduated 
so as to avoid harm to feeble persons who 
are not accustomed to much use of the mus¬ 
cles : 


148 


NEURASTHENIA 


Head Raising Exercise 

1. Head Raising. 

a. With strap. Hands grasping the 

strap: while pulling up on it the 
head is raised forward as far as 
possible. 

b. Without strap. After a few days 
the muscles of the neck will prove 
strong enough to lift the head for¬ 
ward without the use of the strap. 

These exercises should be repeated four to 
eight times. 

It is a good plan to make the exercises by 
the aid of regular counting instrumental 
music. 

2. Trunk Raising. 

Effect of Head Raising Exercises 

The body is raised to the sitting position, 
assistance being given by the arms pulling 
upon the strap. After a time the muscles of 
the trunk become stronger so that this move¬ 
ment may be easily executed without the as¬ 
sistance of the strap. The trunk raising may 


INCLINED TABLE EXERCISES 



Figure 7 



Figure 8 





* 


NERVOUS DYSPEPSIA 


149 


be assisted also by grasping the handles at 
the sides of the table. For full exercise of 
the abdominal muscles the hands are placed 
on the hips. 

Exercises on Inclined Table 

Among the exercises which are especially 
useful in developing muscles of the trunk 
are the following exercises, to be taken on 
the inclined exercise table: 

/ 

1. Flex and extend the feet. 

2. Rotate the legs, outward and inward. 

3. Flex and extend the legs. 

4. Stretching. 

With the knees flexed: 

1. Knees separating. 

2. Hips raising. 

3. Knees separating, hips raising. 

4. Hips rolling, knees extending and flex¬ 
ing. 


Skilled Direction Valuable 

The accompanying cuts will give a very 
good idea of how the exercises should be 


150 


NEURASTHENIA 


taken. For best results it is necessary that 
the exercises should be taken or learned under 
the direction of a person especially trained 
for the purpose. 


INCLINED TABLE EXERCISES 



Figure 9 



Figure 10 












Drug Neurasthenia 


Within the last half century, and partic¬ 
ularly within the last twenty-five or thirty 
years, there have been developing in the 
United States a growing army of neurasthenics 
whose brains and nerves have been damaged 
by the habitual use of toxic agents of various 
sorts. Every opium or cocain habitue and 
every chronic inebriate is a neurasthenic and 
was probably such before he began the use 
of the enthralling drug. The ranks of drug 
habitues are constantly recruited from the 
great horde of neurasthenics which throngs 
in every civilized land. Many a poor fellow 
finds his neurasthenic tortures so acute that he 
can no longer endure them, and knowing no 
other way of escape, he flees to the oblivion 
afforded by a narcotic drug, only to find his 
sufferings increased when the effect of the 
drug has passed, and so from day to day he 
sinks deeper in the mire of disease until he 
finally lands in the lunatic asylum unless 

151 


152 


NEURASTHENIA 


he is fortunately sooner carried off by some 
acute or chronic affection of the kidneys, 
heart or lungs. 

These poor unfortunates are scarcely to 
be blamed for their attempt to find relief 
in narcotism. They are simply driven before 
a blast of mental and nervous anguish which 
their weak wills cannot withstand. They 
have no chance for their lives. Made neu¬ 
rasthenic by bad heredity and ignorance of 
the principles of “right living,” they drift 
helplessly to their fate. It is high time that 
the state should offer a helping hand to 
these unhappy sufferers. Institutions should 
be provided where at state expense they may 
be shielded from temptation, taught self- 
control, and trained in normal habits. Little 
can be done for patients of this class except 
in institutions where they may be under com¬ 
plete control and may have the benefit of ex¬ 
pert medical attention and treatment by 
specially trained nurses. 

But there is another still larger class of 
drug neurasthenics who may be helped by the 
adoption of correct habits and the avoid- 


DRUG NEURASTHENIA 


153 


ance of the causes of their malady. These 
are the habitual users of “tonics,” “hypno¬ 
tics,” and various other so-called medicinal 
drugs and nostrums of diverse sorts. In this 
class must also be included many of the users 
of tea, coffee, tobacco, and alcohol in so-called 
“moderation.” 

Strychnia has for generations been the 
popular tonic. Countless thousands have 
been deceived by its delusive effects. Physi¬ 
cians are chiefly responsible for the false con¬ 
fidence reposed in this powerful nerve ex¬ 
citant. Modern studies of metabolism have 
clearly demonstrated the futility of attempt¬ 
ing to find any substitute for the vital energy 
generated by healthy cells acting under the 
influence of normal or physiologic stimuli. 
The apparent increase in vigor which follows 
a dose of strychnia is not due to an actual 
addition to the sum of the bodily energies, 
but is simply the result of a forced expendi¬ 
ture of energy which is already depleted to 
the point of danger. Strychnia and other 
similar drugs are simply devices for getting 
out of a man energy which he cannot afford 


154 


NEURASTHENIA 


to spare and which he ought to keep. The 
jaded housewife needs a rest instead of a 
tonic. The tonic may for the time being 
conceal from her the fact that she needs a 
rest, but the rest is needed none the less, and 
in due time will be imperatively demanded 
with interest. 

The mischief done by these factitious 
remedies and how they lead straight to neu¬ 
rasthenia are well illustrated by the following 
case, hundreds of examples similar to which 
might be cited from the writer’s experience. 

Some years ago the writer received a letter 
from a physician in a distant State describing 
the case of a patient whom he desired to 
bring to the institution for treatment. The 
lady, the doctor said, had acquired the mor¬ 
phine habit and was constantly requiring 
larger doses, so that it was evidently neces¬ 
sary that something should be done. In due 
time the doctor arrived with his patient and 
told the following story. 

‘‘Some two years ago,” said the doctor, 
“the patient came to me for a tonic to help 
her through a ‘church fair,’ of which she was 


DRUG NEURASTHENIA 


155 


the director. She was simply tired out, but 
felt that she must get through with the affair 
and wanted some sort of a tonic to brace 
her up. I gave her some two-grain quinine 
pills to be taken, one three times a day. She 
felt better for a few days, then came back for 
something stronger, so I gave her some 
strychnia pills in addition to the quinine. 
This worked very well for a short time then 
she came complaining that she could not sleep 
at night, so I gave her bromid. This worked 
well for a few days, then I had to add chloral. 
Then she complained she felt bad in the 
morning, that the pills did not seem to help 
her sufficiently, and I had to increase the dose 
of strychnia. This increased the sleepless¬ 
ness, so I had to give her morphia to enable 
her to sleep. Her bowels became bad, so I 
had to begin giving her laxatives. The ef¬ 
fect of small doses of morphia soon wore out 
and I had to give her larger doses. Then 
I had to increase the laxatives, until finally I 
was obliged to give her croton oil to secure 
any bowel movement. After a while this 
seemed to lose its effect and now I am giving 


156 


NEURASTHENIA 


her two tablespoonfuls of unground mustard 
seed before breakfast, which is the only thing 
that will move her bowels. I have also re¬ 
cently added arsenic as a tonic, so that now 
she is taking two grains of quinine, 1/30 of a 
grain of strychnia, 1/20 of a grain of arsenic, 
each three times a day; and at night 20 
grains of chlorin and 30 grains of bromid of 
potassium. She has to have several grains 
of morphia every night and morning. Today 
[day of arrival] I have given her eleven 
grains of morphia.” 

The patient’s condition was wretched to 
the last degree. She had no appetite, was 
emaciated, skin the color of leather, highly 
neurasthenic, extremely irritable and de¬ 
pressed. The patient was quickly weaned 
from her drugs by the means of a simple 
nutritious diet, together with baths, massage, 
and physiologic measures of various sorts, so 
that in the course of three or four months 
she was quite restored to health, and in fact 
declared herself to be perfectly well for the 
first time in years. 

Many thousands of patients have been in 


DRUG NEURASTHENIA 


157 


a similar way drugged into neurasthenia by 
irrational treatment. The lack of success of 
the routine methods of dealing with this class 
ot patients and the disastrous results often 
seen from drug habits acquired through the 
prescription of physicians are without doubt 
largely responsible for the development in 
modern times of Christian Science, the mind 
cure, and various other occult methods. 
However irrational they may be, they are cer¬ 
tainly no more irrational than the method 
which they supplant and, to say the least, 
produce less deplorable results. 

The use of hypnotics to induce sleep has 
been a most prolific cause of drug neuras¬ 
thenia. Bromids, once exceedingly popular, 
have now fallen into disuse, largely because 
of the nervous depression following their em¬ 
ployment. The writer recollects several cases 
which illustrate the nerve paralyzing effects 
of the bromids. One case was of a lady 
brought from a neighboring State by her hus¬ 
band and her physician, who carried her in 
their arms from the train to the carriage at 
both ends of the journey. The lady was un- 


158 


NEURASTHENIA 


able to walk because of a persistent vertigo 
and a weakness in the legs which made it im¬ 
possible for her to stand upright. At the 
end of three or four days this patient was 
walking all about the institution, to her great 
surprise and delight. Her recovery was so 
rapid as to seem almost miraculous. The 
reason for the sudden disappearance of her 
distressing symptoms was disclosed when she 
mentioned the fact that her physician had left 
her a bottle containing a solution of bromids, 
with instruction that she take a teaspoonful 
whenever she felt nervous. She said she had 
felt nervous all the time and so had taken a 
teaspoonful every half hour or so until she 
came to the institution. The vertigo and 
weakness of the legs were simply the toxic 
effects of the large doses of bromid which 
she had been taking. 

Other drugs, not much less harmful 
than chloral and potassium bromid, are now 
fashionable remedies for sleeplessness and 
nervousness, and certainly these drugs, like 
their predecessors, are by no means innocent. 
Their habitual use sooner or later results in 


DRUG NEURASTHENIA 


159 


a neurasthenic state which can only be cured 
by complete abandonment of the drug and 
building up of healthy nerves through good 
nutrition and other physiologic means. 

Tea and Coffee Neurasthenics 

The widespread use of tea and coffee in 
England and America and in other civilized 
countries is unquestionably a prolific cause of 
neurasthenia, especially in women who, on 
the whole, seem to be more susceptible to 
these drugs than are men, and more addicted 
to their use. 

A man or woman who cannot begin a day’s 
work in comfort without one or two cups of 
tea or coffee, or who suffers from headache 
or nervousness when deprived of the accus- 
tomed beverage, is a tea or coffee neurasthenic 
and as much a drug habitue as a person who 
is addicted to the use of opium or cocaine. 

Tea and coffee topers are increasing in 
numbers, notwithstanding the wide diffusion 
of information concerning the pernicious 
character of these drugs. Persons who are 
predisposed to neurasthenia very naturally 


160 


NEURASTHENIA 


resort to tea and coffee to steady their nerves, 
to drive away depression or to relieve mental 
confusion. 

The tea pot in many homes is kept boiling 
as a ready resort for relief from headache, 
certain forms of which, while produced and 
aggravated by the use of tea and coffee, are 
temporarily relieved by a cup of strong tea 
or coffee. That these drugs produce decided 
injury to the nerves is not surprising when the 
fact is known that every cup of so-called good 
coffee contains not less than four grains of 
caffein, a poison which is practically identical 
with uric acid. Urine contains about six grains 
of uric acid to the quart, or one-fifth of a 
grain to the ounce. It is thus apparent that 
the average cup of coffee contains fully three 
times as much uric acid, or its equivalent, 
caffein, as does the same quantity of urine. 

The writer has met a number of cases of 
tea-tasters’ neurasthenia. The symptoms of 
this disease are now well known and frequent 
descriptions of the cases of this sort are to 
be encountered in medical literature. The 
following description of a case appeared in 


DRUG NEURASTHENIA 


161 


the Journal of Mental and Nervous Dis¬ 
eases: 

“The immediate effect upon him are as 
follows: in about ten minutes the face be¬ 
comes flushed, the whole body feels warm or 
heated, and a sort of intellectual intoxication 
comes on, much the same in character, it 
would seem, as that which occurs in the rare¬ 
fied air of a mountain. He feels elated, ex¬ 
hilarated, troubles and cares vanish, every¬ 
thing seems bright and cheerful, his body 
feels light and elastic, his mind clear, his 
ideas abundant, vivid, and flowing fluently 
into words. He has found from experience 
that the workings of his intellect are really 
more clear and vigorous than at any other 
time. This is not a delusion on his part, 
for at this time he can ‘talk a man over,’ 
and make a more advantageous bargain than 
at others. 

“At the end of about an hour’s tasting a 
slight reaction begins to set in; some head¬ 
ache comes on; the face feels wrinkled and 
shriveled, particularly about the eyes, which 
also get dark under the lids. 


162 


NEURASTHENIA 


“At the end of two hours this reaction has 
become fully established, the flushed, warm 
feeling has passed off, the hands and feet are 
cold, a nervous tremor comes on, accom¬ 
panied with great mental depression. And 
he is now so excitable that every noise startles 
him; he is in a state of complete unrest and 
mental exhaustion; he has no courage to do 
anything; he can neither walk nor sit down, 
owing to his mental condition, and he settles 
into a complete gloom. His body in the 
meanwhile does not feel weary. Copious 
and frequent urination is always present, as 
also certain dyspeptic symptoms, such as 
eructations of wind, sour taste, and others. 

“The above-described immediate effects 
follow a single afternoon’s tea-tasting. They 
may be summed up briefly as excited circula¬ 
tion, intellectual intoxication, with actual in¬ 
creased vigor of mind power, increased urina¬ 
tion; then a period of collapse indicated by 
cold extremities, tremulousness, mental ir¬ 
ritability and anxiety. It will be several days 
before this condition of affairs is amended. 
And at this time the temptation to take 


DRUG NEURASTHENIA 


163 


alcoholic stimulants is very strong, indeed. 

“The chronic effects are few and decided. 
Headache is frequent, principally frontal 
and vertical; a ringing and buzzing in the 
ears is very constant; black spots often flit 
before the eyes, and he sees flashes of light. 
Vertigo also is very persistently present; he 
cannot look up at a clock on a steeple without 
staggering. Insomnia exists to a considerable 
extent; he seldom has a good night’s sleep, 
and he dreams much, but his dreams are of 
a pleasant character; he sometimes sees 
visions when not sleeping. Dyspepsia is more 
troublesome than any of the foregoing three 
symptoms. This the patient assigns strictly 
to tea-tasting, since it is made worse by tea, 
and improves when he abstains from it, 
though now becoming confirmed. His appe¬ 
tite is capricious, he feels heavy at the epig¬ 
astrium, he has eructations and a sour taste, 
and finds that certain kinds of food distress 
him. He has a frequent gurgling and is in 
the habit of ‘working’ his whole chest and ab¬ 
domen to make the gas pass off. 

“His mental condition is peculiar. He 


164 


NEURASTHENIA 


lives in a state of dread that some accident 
may happen to him; in the omnibus, fears a 
collision; crossing the street, fears that he 
will be crushed by passing teams; walking on 
the sidewalks, fears that a sign may fall, or 
watches the eaves of the houses, thinking that 
a brick may fall down and kill him; under 
the apprehension that every dog he meets is 
going to bite the calves of his legs, he carries 
an umbrella in all weathers as a defense 
against such an attack. He often dreads 
entering his office for fear of being told that 
some business friend has failed; and in short, 
lives in a state of constant foreboding of 
some impending evil. At times his left leg 
drags and feels numb, and he is conscious of 
an unsteady gait. He has also often a twitch¬ 
ing of the muscles of the face and eyelids. 

“The chronic effects above described, as 
distinguished from the immediate effects, are, 
in brief, vertigo, headache, insomnia, dys¬ 
pepsia, mental depression, almost amounting 
to delusions, and also some slight subjective 
and objective signs of a central disturbance 
of both sensibility and motility.” 


DRUG NEURASTHENIA 


165 


Tobacco Neurasthenics 

Tobacco neurasthenia is most frequently 
encountered in young men, especially clerks 
and others employed in offices and those fol¬ 
lowing other vocations of a sedentary sort. 
The well known effect of tobacco upon the 
sympathetic system renders it especially ac¬ 
tive in the development of the neurasthenic 
state. 

✓ 

In experiments on animals the physiolo¬ 
gist habitually makes use of nicotine as a 
means of paralyzing the sympathetic nerve, 
which it seeks out with unvarying certainty. 

The toxic effect of tobacco upon the sympa¬ 
thetic nervous system is shown by the nausea, 
vertigo and great depression generally pro¬ 
duced by the first pipe or cigar in the “would 
be” devotee of the drug. Trembling of the 
hands, intermittent beating of the heart, 
shortness of breath and loss of endurance are 
effects which regularly follow the habitual 
use of tobacco. No intelligent trainer will 
permit a man preparing for an athletic event 
to make use of tobacco in any form. A large 


166 


NEURASTHENIA 


proportion of young men who are refused 
admission to the army at the recruiting 
bureaus are rejected because of neurasthenic 
symptoms due to the use of tobacco. The 
man whose nerves are unsteady and who 
cannot work without his pipe or cigar has al¬ 
ready become a tobacco neurasthenic. 

There are tobacco users who notice so little 
effect from the drug that they can dispense 
with the usual pipe or cigar without incon¬ 
venience. Such persons have not yet become 
neurasthenic but will sooner or later develop 
toxic symptoms, such as high blood-pressure, 
albuminuria, or some chronic affection of the 
heart, lungs or nerves. 

Alcohol and Neurasthenia 

Multitudes of neurasthenics resort to 
alcohol for benumbing their nerve sensibilities 
and thus relieving their discomforts. The 
temporary relief thus obtained never leads to 
a cure but only intensifies the malady. Al¬ 
cohol is not a stimulant, hence does not in¬ 
crease nervous energy nor does it enable the 
nerve cells of the body to increase their out- 


DRUG NEURASTHENIA 


167 


put of energy. Alcohol is a narcotic. It 
lessens the output of nervous energy as cer¬ 
tainly as do all other narcotics. It produces 
its effects by lessening sensibility. It hampers 
digestion, cripples the heart, damages the kid¬ 
neys, hardens the liver and works havoc with 
every tissue and function of the body. Its 
effects are evil and only evil. The apparent 
benefit it affords is a delusion and a snare by 
which the attention of the user is diverted 
from the real cause of his trouble, with the 
result that he is lured on to greater disasters. 

Treatment of Drug Neurasthenia 

Drug neurasthenia is of all forms of this 
disease the most amenable to treatment. The 
withdrawal of the particular drug or drugs to 
which the victim of drug neurasthenia has 
been addicted is almost invariably followed 
by a rapid recovery. The chief difficulty in 
dealing with these patients is to get the pa¬ 
tient over the first few days of discomfort 
which must naturally follow the withdrawal 
of the drug. By the use of appropriate meas¬ 
ures, however, the distress usually suffered in 


168 


NEURASTHENIA 


this transition period may be very greatly 
mitigated and in many cases almost wholly 
overcome. Patients who have been depend¬ 
ent upon tonics at first feel somewhat let 
down when the drug is withdrawn, but by 
the tonic applications of cold water that have 
been recommended in previous chapters and 
by other measures the nerve tone is rapidly 
built up and the patient soon feels a real in¬ 
crease in vitality and vigor and realizes that 
his improvement rests upon a substantial 
basis, which could not be the case from the 
use of any drug. 

Hypnotics are easily dispensed with when 
the methods recommended in the present 
volume are faithfully employed. There is 
no hypnotic drug which possesses half the 
power to produce healthful sleep as does 
the neutral bath. Tea and coffee and to¬ 
bacco may be discarded at once and with im¬ 
mediate advantage. The tapering off plan 
seldom succeeds and requires more resolution 
than immediate and complete dropping of the 
drug. The nervous and other distressing 
symptoms which sometimes follow the dis- 


DRUG NEURASTHENIA 


169 


use of these drugs are very promptly 
relieved by such simple measures as the neu¬ 
tral bath, hot and cold applications to the 
spine and fomentations to the abdomen, fol¬ 
lowed by vigorous rubbing. Fomentations 
of the abdomen are particularly useful in 
case of persons who have been addicted to 
the tobacco habit because of the especial 
pernicious influence of tobacco upon the sym¬ 
pathetic nerves and nerve centers, as well as 
the splanchnic vessels. 

Professor Kreuzfuss, of Vienna, has 
shown that arteriosclerosis of the abdominal 
vessels is a common result of tobacco using 
and, according to Doctor Janeway, of New 
York, a single cigar is capable of raising the 
blood-pressure twenty points in thirty min¬ 
utes. High blood-pressure is a very common 
symptom among smokers. Application of 
heat to the abdomen relieves the irritation of 
the sympathetic system and exercises a highly 
favorable influence upon the abdominal cir¬ 
culation. 

Sweating baths are also useful in these 
cases as a means of aiding the elimination of 


170 


NEURASTHENIA 


the drug and of accumulated waste matters, 
thus preparing the way for a thorough tissue 
regeneration. 

In cases in which the drug habit has been 
formed in consequence of an existing neu¬ 
rasthenia, it is evidently necessary that thor¬ 
ough-going measures should be adopted for 
the cure of the primary disease as the only 
certain means of preventing a relapse to the 
drug habit. 

In addition to the especial methods recom¬ 
mended above, the drug neurasthenic, like all 
other neurasthenics, must become a faithful 
adherent to the simple life rules which have 
been fully outlined in another chapter. 


Religious Neurasthenia 


The venerable Bishop Vincent, of Chau¬ 
tauqua fame, once remarked in a public ad¬ 
dress that “some people think they have ex¬ 
perienced religion when they have only had a 
bilious attack.” Such persons are generally 
religious neurasthenics. Their creed is a 
neurasthenic theology and their religion a 
fine sort of pessimism. They discern on 
every storm cloud the face of an angry Provi¬ 
dence and interpret every calamity, personal 
or national, as the visitation of the wrath of 
God. These unhappy souls live under a per¬ 
petual shadow because of their perverted 
ideas of life here and hereafter. 

A religious neurasthenic may be in part a 
product of wrong education. The morbid 
ideas entertained by these unfortunate people 
are by no means held by a few individuals, 
but are widely current in certain religious 
communities, whose neurasthenic leaders are 
often regarded with a sort of reverent awe. 

171 


172 


NEURASTHENIA 


The writer has met not a few of these un¬ 
happy folks whose lives were made joyless 
and in many cases hopeless by pessimistic re¬ 
ligious views and the melancholic piety which 
they cultivate. 

Both Body and Mind Need Care 

Neurasthenia is active, both as a cause and 
a consequence, in these cases. An improved 
physical condition often leads to an im¬ 
proved state of mind. For complete cure ap¬ 
propriate measures must be applied to both 
mind and body. Not a few such persons 
have been helped by embracing Christian 
Science, or its weak imitation, the Emmanuel 
Movement. While the so-called Christian 
Science is not scientific, nor altogether Chris¬ 
tian, it must be acknowledged that many 
through its influence have been helped to a 
comfortable, happy, and useful life, but un¬ 
questionably the same results might be at¬ 
tained without Christian Science. 

From a logical standpoint Eddyism is 
neither science nor philosophy. Neverthe¬ 
less, some of the ideas presented by this 


RELIGIOUS NEURASTHENIA 


173 


curious cult, though not peculiar to or origi¬ 
nal with it, are sound and wholesome. Mrs. 
Eddy herself was unquestionably a neuras¬ 
thenic. It is probable that a very large pro¬ 
portion of the devotees of this cult are also 
more or less neurasthenic. Christian Science 
may be of service to these sufferers, and the 
writer is quite willing to give the cult what¬ 
ever credit may be due it. 


Sexual Neurasthenia 


The sexual neurasthenic is the most diffi¬ 
cult type with which the physician has to deal. 
In the majority of cases the patient is a vic¬ 
tim of sexual excesses or perversity of some 
sort, although in some cases no doubt the 
sexual errors have been provoked by the 
neurasthenic state. 

The majority of subjects are young men, 
although young women are not exempt. The 
symptoms described by these sufferers pre¬ 
sent a sorry picture of mental and moral 
obliquity which cannot be put in print. The 
patient persistently reiterates his morbid feel¬ 
ings as often as the physician or any body else 
can be induced to listen to them. He has 
usually tested the virtues of all the patent 
medicines advertised in the newspapers and 
has been victimized by every quack within 
reach, and unfortunately is in too many cases 
so far deteriorated in moral character and 
will-power that little can be accomplished for 

174 


SEXUAL NEURASTHENIA 


175 


him. Patients who are willing and able to 
cooperate with intelligent efforts made in 
their behalf can usually be greatly helped, 
often entirely cured. Not a few are really 
more frightened than sick, as the result of 
reading patent medicine advertisements and 
the meretricious literature sent out by so- 
called “specialists.” These cases are most 
hopeful and are quickly restored when re¬ 
lieved of the apprehension with which they 
have been wrongfully inspired. 

Wholesome Mental Occupation Important 

The sexual neurasthenic needs first of all 
a thorough mental purging. This can be ac¬ 
complished only by wholesome mental occu¬ 
pation. It is no use to exhort the patient to 
keep his mind off sexual subjects. The 
more he tries to do this the more impossible 
it becomes. The enemy must be routed by a 
flank movement. The attention must be 
diverted into other and wholesome channels, 
and both mind and body must be fully occu¬ 
pied by wholesome work of some sort. 

Drugs of all sorts must be abandoned. 


176 


NEURASTHENIA 


Continence of mind and body must be an ab¬ 
solute rule. The advice given young men, 
and even young women also, by certain physi¬ 
cians who recommend immorality as a 
remedy, is most pernicious and wholly un¬ 
warranted by any fact or principle recognized 
among reputable and scientific medical men. 

The Simple Life Must be Religiously Lived 

The sexual neurasthenic, like the sufferer 
from chronic fatigue, must live the simple life 
most religiously. He must turn away from 
every vicious practice and must set his face 
resolutely toward the highest ideals of Chris¬ 
tian manhood. He needs above all others the 
helps afforded by a deeply religious life. 

The sexual neurasthenic, too, of all others 
needs the aid of a wise and experienced 
physician. In general, the methods outlined 
in preceding and following chapters will be 
found of great service. In some cases local 
treatment which can be properly applied only 
by a skilled specialist is essential to complete 
recovery. 


Christian Science, Emmanuel 
Movement, Hypnotism 

The writer’s views in relation to Christian 
Science, together with other similar move¬ 
ments and hypnotism, are set forth in the fol¬ 
lowing extracts from lectures on the subject, 
delivered at different times before the pa¬ 
tients of the Battle Creek Sanitarium: 

Christian Science a Misnomer—Neither Scien¬ 
tific nor Christian 

No Christian theologian would admit that 
the theory or the so-called philosophy of 
Christian Science is in harmony with the 
recognized doctrines of Christianity; and 
certainly no scientist for a moment would ad¬ 
mit that the so-called Christian Science or 
philosophy is worthy of the dignity attached 
to the word science. Indeed, from a logical 
standpoint the teachings of Christian Science 
are a veritable quagmire of irrational 

177 


178 


NEURASTHENIA 


thought. Notwithstanding it cannot be said 
that there is nothing good in Christian 
Science, yet I do assert that what is good in 
it is not new and what is new is not good. 
So-called Christian Science is neither scienti¬ 
fic nor Christian. It is not scientific because 
it seeks to destroy the very foundations of 
science. It declares that the very things with 
which science deals, things which we feel, 
taste, touch, smell, do not exist; that ma¬ 
terial objects have no existence. Now, this 
is not a new idea. Bishop Berkeley brought 
forward that idea long years ago. He de¬ 
clared that matter was but an idea—a 
picture. Lord Byron, when once asked what 
he thought of the theory, replied, 

“When Bishop Berkeley said: ‘There is 
no matter,’ ’twas no matter what he said.” 

One of the Inconsistencies of Christian Science 

Now, Mrs. Eddy finds herself in the same 
situation. If the theory is true, then she her¬ 
self is no matter, neither is her book. The 
millions of dollars she has made out of the 
sale of her books, which cost a few cents a 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


179 


copy and sell for $5, are also no matter. 
And it seems very strange that she and her 
trustees should have been so disturbed re¬ 
cently owing to an attempt upon the part of 
some of her relatives to get possession of 
some of Mrs. Eddy’s immaterial wealth. 

In reading the writings of Mrs. Eddy one 
finds no real system or philosophy, no logical 
relation of ideas. The teaching is a hodge¬ 
podge. Some one has called it a “junk shop 
of effete fancies.” To become convinced of 
this it is only necessary to read an early edi¬ 
tion of “Science and the Scriptures.” The 
works are their own best refutation. 

The Real Basis of Christian Science 

The foundation stone on which she bases 
her “science” is this: God is good; God 
created all things and pronounced all things 
good; a good God cannot create an evil 
thing. Disease, pain, sin, crime are evil 
things—therefore they do not exist. Now, 
that is simply sophistry. It may look 
straight enough, but it is not sound reason¬ 
ing. 


180 


NEURASTHENIA 


Its Bad Logic 

In the first place pain is not a thing—dis¬ 
ease is not a thing, using the word in the 
sense in which we say: “God created all 
things.” God created all objects, but he did 
not create all relations of all objects. God 
created man, but not man’s actions. If a man 
stubs his toe and falls down, God does not 
create the fall. God created all original ob¬ 
jects, but man and other intelligent creatures 
are also creators. “God made the country; 
man made the town.” God makes trees; man 
makes houses. The fundamental error of 
Christian Science rests on this confusing use 
of the word “things.” The fundamental 
proposition is false. Disease, distress, sin— 
these come from the establishment of wrong 
relations of things. They are man-created. 
Mrs. Eddy says disease and pain are simply 
“morbid ideas.” It would be rather difficult 
to convince a man suffering from the tooth¬ 
ache that he had simply a “morbid idea.” 
Mrs. Eddy insists not only that there is no 
such thing as a toothache, but there cannot 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


181 


be such a thing as the toothache, since there is 
no tooth to ache. 

Matter not Actual, says Mrs. Eddy 

Here are a few of the items of Mrs. 
Eddy’s philosophy, copied from her books. 
In describing the “inspiration” or revelation 
of Christian science as she claims it came to 
her, she says: “The great facts of omnipo¬ 
tence and omnipresence, of spirit possessing 
all power and filling all space, these facts 
contradicted forever to my understanding 
the notion that matter can be actual. These 
facts also revealed to me primeval existence 
and the radiant realities of good; and there 
was present to me, as never before, the awful 
unreality of evil.” 

Again, “By mind alone I have prevented 
disease, preserved and restored health, 
healed chronic as well as acute ailments in 
their severest forms, elongated and shortened 
limbs, relaxed rigid muscles, restored decay¬ 
ing bones to healthy conditions, brought back 
the lost substance of the lungs and caused 
them to resume their proper functions.” 


182 


NEURASTHENIA 


Disease Non-Existent, Says Christian Science 

“It is no less than mental quackery to make 
disease a reality, hold it as something seen 
and felt, and then to attempt to work its 
cure through the Mind. It is no less erron¬ 
eous to believe the real existence of a tumor, 
a cancer or decayed lungs. 

“It is morally wrong to examine the body 
in order to ascertain if we are in health; be¬ 
cause this is to take the government of man 
out of the hands of God. 

“Because Man is the reflection of his 
Maker, he is not subject to birth, growth, 
maturity or decay. These illusions are of 
human origin, not Divine.” 

“One disease is no more unreal than an¬ 
other. All disease is the result of hallucina¬ 
tion and can carry its ill effects no further 
than mortal mind maps out. Facts are stub¬ 
born things. Christian Science finds the de¬ 
cided type of acute disease, however severe, 
quite as ready to yield as the less distinct type 
and chronic form of disease. It handles the 
most malignant contagion with perfect as- 

n 


surance. 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


183 


“The uselessness of drugs, the emptiness 
of knowledge, the nothingness of matter and 
its imaginary laws, are apparent as we rise 
from the rubbish of belief to the acquisition 
and demonstration of spiritual understand¬ 
ing.” 

“Christian Science is sunlight to the body. 
It invigorates and purifies. It acts as an al¬ 
ternative, neutralizing error with Truth. It 
changes the secretions, expels humors, dis¬ 
solves tumors, relaxes rigid muscles, restores 
carious bones to soundness.” 

“Nothing but mortal belief gives colds and 
coughs, or circulates contagion.” 

“You say a boil is painful; but that is im¬ 
possible, for matter without mind is not pain¬ 
ful. The boil simply manifests your belief 
in pain, inflammation and swelling; and you 
call this belief a boil.” 

“The sick are never really healed by drugs, 
hygiene or any material method. These 
merely evade the question. They are sooth¬ 
ing syrups to put children to sleep, satisfy 
mortal belief and lull its fears.” 

“Is civilization but a higher state of idola- 


184 


NEURASTHENIA 


try, that man, in the nineteenth century, 
should bow down to a flesh brush, to flannels 
and baths, to diet, exercise and air? Nothing 
is able to do for him what he is able to do for 
himself with omnipotent aid.” 

Christian Science Really Opposed to 

Christianity 

Christian Science is not only opposed to all 
real science, but it is diametrically opposed to 
Christianity. “Man is incapable of sin and 
death,” says Mrs. Eddy. Why, then, is this 
so-called philosophy called Christian ? What 
is the province of Christianity unless to save 
from sin and death? If a man is incapable 
of sinning or of death, if there is no sin or 
death, then what need of Christianity? 
Christian Science leaves no place for Chris¬ 
tianity. 

Now, there are some things in Christian 
Science that are good. The philosophy is 
bad—absurd, unbelievable, incredible to the 
intelligent individual; but it is true that thou¬ 
sands have found relief, comfort, and even 
health in it. There is unquestionably some- 



CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


185 


thing in it that is practically good. The good 
element in Christian Science is faith. The 
man who buys a gold brick is happy so long 
as he thinks he has the real thing and just as 
happy as though he were the possessor of a 
lot of gold. So the believer in Christian 
Science may be helped, not by Christian 
Science, but by his own faith. 

When Christ healed the woman who came 
to him he said: “Thy faith hath made thee 
whole.” It is a fact that half the people who 
are sick are haunted by hobgoblins, ghosts of 
maladies which they do not have. If a Chris¬ 
tian Science doctor is called in such a case, 
he may scare away the hobgoblin and a cure 
is effected. If Christian Science would only 
be more careful in its selection of cases it 
would have a larger number of successful 
“cures.” 

The Emmanuel Movement 

Christian Science has at last a rival 
which threatens to become a powerful com¬ 
petitor. The Christian Scientists have had 
things pretty much their own way. Only 


186 


NEURASTHENIA 


now and then has a Dowie or a Paul Castor, 
or some other professed “healer,” under¬ 
taken to dispute the field with the followers 
of Mrs. Eddy. 

A few years ago a pastor of the Episcopal 
Church in Mrs. Eddy’s own town began a 
work which made considerable headway 
under the name of the “Emmanuel Church 
Movement.” 

From the standpoint of an onlooker there 
seem to be many points of similarity between 
Eddyism and this new movement within the 
ranks of the church: 

1. Mrs. Eddy teaches that disease exists 
only as a morbid idea. 

The Emmanuel Movement regards disease 
as the result of morbid mental states, at 
least so far as functional disease is con¬ 
cerned, and this really is tantamount to say¬ 
ing all disease, for organic disease begins 
with functional derangement. 

2. Mrs. Eddy teaches that disease may 
be cured by mental methods applied to the 
patient by one who has been instructed. 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


187 


Doctor Worcester and his colleagues teach 
that disease may be cured by “psychic sug¬ 
gestion,” applied by specially qualified 
persons. 

3. Mrs. Eddy claims for herself and her 
healers a personal power or authority to 
control the vital processes of other persons, 
so making possible the cure of disease by 
them. 

Says the Emmanuel healer to the patient, 
“I can cure you absolutely.” 

The Emmanuel Movement differs from 
Eddyism in that it claims to be strictly in 
harmony with modern science, while Mrs. 
Eddy utterly repudiates all that is commonly 
recognized as science. In operation and ef¬ 
fect, however, there is little difference be¬ 
tween the two. 

Doctor Worcester operates through “sug¬ 
gestion” and “hypnotism,” methods long in 
use by certain specialists and by numerous 
charlatans. 

The history of hypnotism, formerly called 
mesmerism, dates from Mesmer, a charlatan 
whose sensational so-called “cures” were the 


188 


NEURASTHENIA 


wonder of Paris more than a century ago. 
Benjamin Franklin was living at the time in 
the French capital. The great statesman- 
philosopher was a member of a committee 
appointed by the French Academy to investi¬ 
gate the new method of exorcising disease. 
Mesmer claimed the cures to be wrought by 
means of a magnet in a tub with which he 
connected the patients by means of handles. 
Franklin replaced the magnet by a wooden 
imitation and the “cures” continued as be¬ 
fore. Whereupon Mesmer, nothing daunted, 
announced the discovery that the healing 
power lay in himself. This was the genesis 
of animal magnetism. 

Mesmer has had a host of successors in 
and out of the profession who have claimed 
special power over disease and the ability to 
control by the action of their own minds the 
operation of other minds and bodies through 
occult means. 

Modern psychologic science has explained 
the curious phenomena of mesmerism and 
named it hypnotism. The explanation is 
this: by various means an individual may be 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


189 


brought into a state of mental vacuity or ab¬ 
straction. While in this condition, the so- 
called hypnotic state, ideas communicated to 
the subject’s mind may become the control¬ 
ling factors in his conduct, and may even 
temporarily influence his bodily functions. 
“Suggestion” is the term used to designate 
the presentation of ideas to the mind of the 
subject without the hypnotic state, either dur¬ 
ing the ordinary waking condition or during 
natural sleep. 

Hypnotism Found Wanting 

Hypnotism has been carefully studied 
by the most eminent neurologists, and has 
been found wanting. Professor Charcot, the 
great French neurologist, after years of in¬ 
vestigation and constant experiment dis¬ 
carded it as a means of general application. 
The able editor of the British Medical 
Journal, perhaps the most authoritative and 
influential of all medical journals, some years 
ago made an exhaustive inquiry into the 
question of hypnotism, the result of which 
was the publication of a most decided and 


190 


NEURASTHENIA 


positive condemnation of this psychic method 
as a curative means. The baneful influence 
of hypnotism upon the mind of the hypno¬ 
tized, and the failure of the method to ac¬ 
complish permanent good, was clearly 
pointed out. 

There have been, and still are, schools of 
hypnotism and clinics where hypnotism is the 
chief method of treatment, but with the lapse 
of time the confidence of the medical profes¬ 
sion in this psychic method has, instead of 
increasing, notably diminished, until at pres¬ 
ent a practitioner who resorts to hypnotism 
as his general mode of practice, or as a 
specialty, is commonly looked upon with sus¬ 
picion. 

The Hypnotist is a Deceiver 

And there is good reason for this mistrust. 
The hypnotist is necessarily a deceiver. The 
whole success of his art depends upon the 
belief of the patient that the hypnotist pos¬ 
sesses an occult power by which he can in¬ 
fluence the mind or body of the subject, or 
both. This is a false belief. It has not the 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


191 


slightest foundation in fact; yet unless the 
subject has full confidence in the supposed 
powers of the hypnotist no impression can be 
made. 

Again, the hypnotist impresses the subject 
by making most positive statements without 
being at all certain that he is telling the truth. 
For example, in the case of a chronic ine¬ 
briate the following words were pronounced 
to the subject by an Emmanuel Church 
healer: “You are going to sleep. You are 
sinking deeper into sleep. No noises will dis¬ 
turb you. You will drop off into sleep. You 
are asleep [these words being repeated many 
times, the patient actually fell asleep]. I told 
you before you were not to drink any more. 
I told you that you could not yield again to 
the drink habit. You cannot drink any 
more.” 

Now it was impossible to say with truth, 
'‘You are going to sleep,” or, “You cannot 
drink any more.” It was all supposition, the 
untruth of which the subject might discover. 
The hypnotist is constantly making state¬ 
ments of this kind, well knowing that in many 


192 


NEURASTHENIA 


instances his statements will prove absolutely 
false. He says to the victim of insomnia. 
“You will sleep. Yes, you are getting sleepy 
now. You are dropping off to sleep ! There, 
you are asleep.” If the experiment succeeds, 
the statement is of course true, but a false¬ 
hood when it fails. So far as the hypnotist 
is concerned, such a statement is really un¬ 
true when made. It is a presumption made 
for the purpose of impressing the patient. 
If the subject believes it, the assertion is 
verified in fact; otherwise it proves false. 

So the hypnotist is a professional deceiver. 
When he says to the patient in the most posi¬ 
tive manner, “You are going to sleep,” he is 
not at all certain himself that the patient will 
sleep. His effort is purely experimental. 

Effects Upon the Mind Injurious 

But there are other than moral objections 
to hypnotism, as was well pointed out by the 
eminent Doctor Hart, of the British Medical 
Journal. The effect of the hypnotic state 
upon the subject is not wholesome. The 
false belief upon which the success of the art 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


193 


depends, exercises an unwholesome effect 
upon his mind. He feels that a spell has 
been cast over him. He believes that an¬ 
other mind and will than his own have con¬ 
trol of him. His selfhood is weakened. 

If Hypnotists Hypnotized One Another 

Studying hypnotism more than twenty-five 
years ago in the clinic of the famous Pro¬ 
fessor Charcot, at the Salpetriere, Paris, I 
was impressed particularly by the weak and 
foolish expression commonly seen upon the 
faces of subjects after coming out from the 
hypnotic state. Doctor Hart and many other 
authorities assert that the hypnotic state is 
a diseased condition, a morbid state which is 
made worse by repetition. That it is a con¬ 
dition impossible to a healthy and fully in¬ 
formed mind is not to be doubted for a 
moment. Conceive, if possible, of one pro¬ 
fessional hypnotist hypnotizing another. 
They would be like the augurs of ancient 
times who dared not look one another in the 
face in public for fear of laughing. 

Now there recently appeared in the public 
prints the following: 


194 


NEURASTHENIA 


“The Emmanuel Clinic, conducted by Rev. 
Dr. Frederic Campbell in Brooklyn, New 
York, has been given up, Doctor Campbell 
having resigned his pastorate on account of 
impaired health.” Consistency would have 
added, “and gone to Boston to place himself 
under hypnotic treatment at the Emmanuel 
Church;” but no such announcement was 
made. 

My first impression of the Emmanuel 
Church Movement was that it was essentially 
a religious movement. It commanded my 
entire sympathy and support. But later the 
fact came to light that it was hypnotism in a 
new dress, or in a new environment. In¬ 
stead of the hospital, the church; instead of 
the physician’s office, the pastor’s study; in¬ 
stead of a physician, a preacher; instead of 
a man armed with a knowledge of all that 
modern science has developed of natural 
physiologic means of cure and prophylaxis 
through natural agents and natural habits, a 
hypnotist with the deceptive air of occultism, 
the mysterious pose, the bald deception, the 
false belief on the part of the patient, the 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


195 


voluntary surrender of a weak will to a 
stronger. 

Wherein is it Different from Mesmerism ? 

It is impossible to suppress the query: Is 
hypnotism under the name of the Emmanuel 
Church Movement very different from the 
hypnotism of Mesmer and Charcot? Does 
hypnotism in a church differ radically from 
hypnotism in a hospital? Is deception prac¬ 
ticed by a clergyman less sinful than deception 
by an ordinary mortal? Is a hypnotic seance 
begun with a hymn and a prayer and closed 
with the doxology less objectionable than a 
hypnotic seance in a doctor’s office? Ad¬ 
mitting that the medical profession have neg¬ 
lected the psychic side of therapeutics, is it 
likely that any great good is to be accom¬ 
plished by the clergy through the use of 
means which the medical profession have 
tested for half a century and found wanting? 
That is to say, is hypnotism less reprehen¬ 
sible and unwholesome because its horns and 
hoofs are concealed by an ecclesiastic halo? 

Finally, is the cause of religion likely to be 


196 


NEURASTHENIA 


in any way benefited through the substitution 
by its ministers of the deceptions and false¬ 
hoods of hypnotism and psychologic juggling 
for the simple faith of the gospel? And has 
the hypnotist or the psychologist any better 
means of “suggestion” than the old-fashioned 
method which through all the centuries has 
worked and is still working wonders, when it 
is not relegated to the rear as out-of-date and 
unscientific—simple, honest prayer? 

Incidentally another phase of the Em¬ 
manuel Church Movement has come to light. 
Says one warm advocate of the Movement, 
“Sufferers invariably want some one to whom 
they can unburden their hearts. There is 
where the confessional of the Roman Catho¬ 
lic Church has done a world of good.” 

The Need of Confession 

This may be true, but is there no one save 
a Catholic priest or an Episcopal priest, or 
a hypnotist, to whom a penitent sinner can 
confess his sins, and from whom he may ex¬ 
pect comfort and sympathy adapted to his 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


197 


needs? Has the religious world reached the 
point where another Martin Luther is needed 
to preach the gospel of the Fatherhood of 
God, the Brotherhood of Christ, and the 
efficacy of Christian faith? Whatever good 
there may be in hypnotism, there is only one 
master mind that can be trusted. To be 
divinely inspired is the only hypnotism which 
is safe. Confession is good, but there is only 
one ear which can be safely trusted with all 
the heart’s secrets. Sympathy is good, but 
only one great heart can offer just the meas¬ 
ure and the kind of sympathy which a sorrow¬ 
laden soul needs to lighten its load. Friendly 
sympathy is certainly helpful, but profes¬ 
sional sympathy is a cheap substitute well cal¬ 
culated to develop a class of morbid neuras¬ 
thenics who find their greatest delight in the 
rehearsal of their miseries. 

Our judgment may be wrong, but it now 
looks as though the Emmanuel Church 
Movement, is a religio-scientific substitute 
for both scientific medicine and the good, old- 
fashioned Bible religion, a new-thought-re- 
ligio-medico-sociological movement, a more 


198 


NEURASTHENIA 


or less orthodox rival of Christian Science, 
and with a foundation not much better. 

When a huntsman sets out to kill, he first 
of all finds his game, then takes sure aim and 
fires. He does not shoot at the wolf’s track, 
nor at the heap of bones where it made its 
last meal, nor yet at its bark. He sends the 
bullet to the heart or brain. He shoots, not 
to scare the brute, but to kill. 

The Emmanuel Movement Misses the Mark 

A vital fault with the Emmanuel Move¬ 
ment in dealing with the sick is the fact that 
it aims at the bark or the bite of the body’s 
assailant instead of the attacking element it¬ 
self. Nervousness, depression, headaches, 
and hypochondria are not entities, nor causes. 
They are effects. With these mental effects 
there are always associated many purely 
physical signs of vital depression and bodily 
disorder. They are only the mental expres¬ 
sion of a state which is universal in the body. 

A coated tongue, a bad breath, a dingy 
skin, malodorous perspiration, constipation, 
loss of appetite, lack of energy and endur- 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


199 


ance, highly colored urine, the presence of 
putrefactive poisons in the urine, foul smell¬ 
ing stools alive with putrefactive and poison¬ 
forming germs—these and a score of other 
symptoms are just as much a part of the com¬ 
plete picture of hypochondria as is the de¬ 
pressed mental state. The man whose blood 
is loaded with the products of putrefaction is 
intoxicated just as really as though he had 
swallowed alcohol or any other brain-obfus¬ 
cating drug. Whether the poison is com¬ 
pounded in a chemist’s laboratory or is gen¬ 
erated in his own colon is not a matter of any 
moment, except that the germ poisons are 
generally far more potent and deadly than 
the most powerful drugs. 

To imagine that these poisons can be cast 
out by suggestion, or that the germs which 
produce them can be destroyed by hypnotic 
passes, even when administered with re¬ 
ligious fervor, and in a church or a pastor’s 
study, is to hark back to the time when all 
maladies were demons and remedies con¬ 
sisted of incense, cabalistic formulae, amulets, 
and relics of saints. 


200 


NEURASTHENIA 


In the case of insomnia, for example, the 
wakefulness is usually due to one of two 
causes: too much blood in the brain, or the 
presence of irritating poisons in the blood. 
Both conditions may be present, and gener¬ 
ally are. 

The excess of blood is due to contracted 
blood-vessels in some other part, usually the 
extremities—which are often cold—and espe¬ 
cially the skin, as shown by pallor or a dead 
or sallow hue. 

The sleep-hindering poisons are due to 
imperfect action of the poison-destroying or 
poison-eliminating organs of the body, or to 
an excess of poisons that have been formed. 
The usual source is putrefaction of undi¬ 
gested foodstuffs in the intestine, especially 
remnants of flesh-foods, and constipation, 
which retains the fecal matters and thus 
leads to the absorption of putrefaction 
products. Massage, the wet sheet pack, or 
a warm bath will fill the skin with blood, and 
thus relieve the congested brain. A change 
of diet and measures to secure proper bowel 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


201 


action will remove the brain-irritating poisons 
from the blood. 

These measures are succeeding in hundreds 

of cases daily in sanitariums and hospitals 

■ 

for the insane, where victims of insomnia are 
numerously represented. 

But how may the skin vessels be relaxed 
or the blood-poisons and colon germs be de¬ 
stroyed by putting the patient in an easy chair 
and saying to him, according to Doctor Wor¬ 
cester’s formula: “You are going to sleep; 
you are sinking deeper into sleep. No 
noises will disturb you. You will drop off 
into sleep. You are asleep.” 

There are, of course, certain persons really 
ill who can be wheedled into the idea that 
they are well when they are not; but the de¬ 
lusion will in time disappear, and the old 
condition will assert itself because the origi¬ 
nating cause has not been reached and eradi¬ 
cated. 

Physical Remedies for Physical Ills 

But physical maladies must have physical 
remedies. A patient whose insomnia is due 


202 


NEURASTHENIA 


to autointoxication arising from constipation 
must be relieved of the constipation before 
permanent improvement can be secured, no 

matter how much temporary relief may be 

• 

secured by suggestion or hypnotism. 

We have no disposition to ridicule the Em¬ 
manuel Movement, nor to question the mo¬ 
tives or purposes of its able promoters; but 
we feel compelled to recognize the fact that 
the work is not thoroughgoing. We admit 
that there are exceptional cases in which in¬ 
somnia, hypochondria, and other nervous dis¬ 
eases may be due to purely psychic causes, and 
hence may be cured by psychic remedies, but 
these cases are certainly very rare. 

Functional nervous disorders in general 
are not due to bad mental states, but to bad 
habits. The use of tobacco and of tea and 
coffee, the flesh-eating habit, hasty eating, 
sedentary life and neglect of the bowels, are 
responsible for a thousand cases of nervous 
diseases where pessimism is responsible for 
one. Indeed, most of the pessimism is due 
to a high-protein diet, or may be traced to 
others of the causes named. 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


203 


Many Admirable Features 

There are many most admirable features 
in the Emmanuel Movement. Its kindly 
philanthropic aims, its brotherly spirit, its 
good cheer and helpfulness in so many be¬ 
neficent ways, are most commendable; but it 
is to be hoped that the hypnotic element may 
be eliminated, and the principles of rational 
living added. 

Hypnotism is not a competent substitute 
for Christian faith, and has about as much 
affinity for good religion as oil has for water. 
The two will not mix. 

Hypnotism 

Twenty years ago hypnotism was most en¬ 
thusiastically commended by a large number 
of eminent neurologists, but this method has 
certainly failed to make good and is now 
universally condemned. There are several 
reasons for this. 

Neurasthenics Hypnotizable Only When 

Hysterical 

i. Neurasthenics when not hysterical are 
not hypnotizable. Healthy persons cannot 


204 


NEURASTHENIA 


be hypnotized, at least only to a slight degree, 
and then only in very rare cases. To be a 
good hypnotic subject, one must be mentally 
diseased to such an extent that his personality 
is profoundly changed, a condition which is 
only found in pronounced hysteria. 

Often Makes Patients Worse 

2. Another objection to the employing of 
hypnotism in neurasthenia is that it some¬ 
times makes the patient very much worse 
rather than better. A person who can be 
hypnotized has a weak will. Hypnotization 
weakens the will of the subject more and 
more, the more frequently it is employed. 

Does not Reach the Root of the Disease 

3. A third and really fundamental objec¬ 
tion to hypnotism is that, with rare excep¬ 
tions, it does not reach the actual root of the 
disease. This is equally true of Christian 
Science and all other forms of mental thera¬ 
peutics or psychotherapy. 

Inspiring Confidence by Means of False Claims 

4. A final and sufficient objection is the 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


205 


fact that the successful practice of hypnotism 
requires that the patient should be made to 
believe what is not true. The hypnotizer 
must inspire confidence by false claims of 
power over the subject’s mind and will. 
Hypnotism is impossible without fraud and 
pretense. 

The Freud Method 

In very recent years much discussion in 
medical circles has been aroused by the 
theories and methods proposed by Freud, 
of Germany. 

Freud believes that all cases of neurasthe¬ 
nia are the outgrowth of some disturbance of 
the sexual life. He holds that most of these 
disturbances occur in childhood and may oc¬ 
cur even in infancy. Cases of neurasthenia 
in which no cause of this sort is discoverable 
are termed by Freud, “anxiety-neuroses.” 

The “Unconscious” 

Freud holds that in cases of neurasthenia 
there is a mental state which he terms “the 
unconscious,” in which are held outside the 


206 


NEURASTHENIA 


realm of consciousness injurious impressions 
or ideas which have been combated and so 
repressed and forced below the level of con¬ 
sciousness. The morbid manifestations of 
neurasthenia and hysteria he believes to be 
the result of the efforts of these repressed 
ideas and impulses to find expression. 

A Careful Analyzing of the Patient’s Mental 

State 

His mode of treatment, which is strictly 
psychic, consists in a careful analysis of the 
patient’s mental states, both waking and 
when asleep. This author has developed a 
theory of dreams through which he seeks 
to find by the study of the dreams of neuras¬ 
thenic or hysterical persons the real begin¬ 
nings of the departure from the normal con¬ 
dition. The cure consists in the discovery of 
this occult cause by means of which it is 
brought into the field of consciousness and so 
rendered powerless for mischief. Experi¬ 
ence has shown that these morbid and re¬ 
pressed ideas and impulses are potent only 


CHRISTIAN SCIENCE 


207 


for evil while retained in the so-called “un¬ 
conscious” mind. 

The Freud Method a Long and Complicated 

Process 

Freud has acquired quite a following 
among neurologists who have studied his 
works, and the application of his methods has 
been apparently attended with some degree 
of success in obstinate cases of neurasthenia 
that have resisted all other methods. Freud’s 
methods are very tedious, however, requir¬ 
ing from six months to three years to secure 
results, during which time the patient must 
remain constantly under close observation by 
a highly trained specialist. In the writer’s 
opinion this method is fundamentally defi¬ 
cient in the fact that it makes the cause of 
neurasthenic purely and strictly psychic and 
ignores the tremendous influence of various 
morbid states, particularly autointoxication 
or intestinal toxemia. In general the 
theories of Freud seem to be fine-spun, and 
certainly the success of his method does not 
compare with that attained by a thorough- 


208 


NEURASTHENIA 


going application of the physiologic method, 
the outlines of which are presented in this 
work, and the application of which in a thor¬ 
oughgoing way often secures most gratifying 
results in a wonderfully short time. 


The Philosophy of Sleep 

Sleep and the lack of sleep are factors of 
so great importance in relation to neuras¬ 
thenia that it seems well worth while to de¬ 
vote a short chapter to this very interesting 
function. Why do we sleep? and Why do we 
waken from sleep? are questions which have 
been long and earnestly discussed by physio¬ 
logists and which even yet are not fully 
settled. Some facts are known, but the 
reasons therefor are not altogether clear. 

A Russian observer noted that the blood- 
pressure falls twenty to fifty points during 
sleep. Mosso found from the study of a case 
in which a portion of the skull had been lost 
and of monkeys in whose skulls a glass 
window had been arranged, that the brain 
diminishes in volume during sleep, while the 
volume of the rest of the body increases. 

Fall of Blood-Pressure During Sleep 

The simple explanation is that the blood 
recedes from the brain during sleep. This 


209 


210 


NEURASTHENIA 


condition seems to be essential for perfect 
rest and for the repair of the exhausted brain 
cells. When the blood recedes the nutritive 
lymph takes its place and thus supplies the 
cells with nutritive material, while diminish¬ 
ing the stimulating oxygen which is brought in 
contact with the cells through the blood. 

Quiet Essential for Restful Sleep 

One of the conditions essential for health¬ 
ful, restful sleep is quiet. No doubt the con¬ 
stant din of the city, which never ceases day 
nor night, is a prolific source of neurasthenia. 
In sleep the ears are the last avenue to the 
mind which is closed, and it is doubtful 
whether the ears ever become wholly unsensi¬ 
tive to external sounds even during the most 
profound sleep. The constant hammering of 
noise upon the sensitive brain cells day and 
night leaves no opportunity for complete rest, 
and the result is abnormal irritability and 
disease. 

Experiments first made by Mosso, and 
since repeated by many physiologists, show 
that even during the most profound sleep the 




Curves Showing Soundness of Sleep 

A, effect of external impression (music box), insufficient to 

awaken sleeper—a marked diminution in volume of the arm; 

B, effect of external impression (music box), sufficient to 

awaken sleeper; a stronger diminution in volume followed by 
* 

dilatation as the subject again falls asleep. 














































PHILOSOPHY OF SLEEP 


211 


circulation of blood in the brain is affected 
both by noises and by the dreams which are 
provoked by external sounds. By means of 
the plethysmograph, the effect of these in¬ 
fluences may be easily studied. This device 
consists of two parts: i. a chamber in which 
an arm or a foot is placed; 2. a recording de¬ 
vice, by which the very slightest changes in 
the volume of the part are registered by a 
tracing upon a moving surface of smoked 
paper. The accompanying cuts, from 
Howell’s excellent work on physiology, are 
reproductions of records obtained in this way 
from a person when asleep. The small 
pointed curves indicate the movements of the 
heart; the large downward curve in the trac¬ 
ing is the result of a noise made at x by set¬ 
ting a music box in operation. In the first of 
the two tracings the noise was not sufficiently 
loud to awaken the sleeper. In the second 
tracing he awoke, and, as will be noted, the 
curve is deeper. The drop in the tracing is 
due to the fact that when the brain was excited 
by sound, its blood-vessels dilated, diverting 
blood from the arm of the sleeper, which thus 


212 


NEURASTHENIA 


became smaller. The smaller drops in the 
curve all indicate circulatory disturbances of 
similar origin. 

The Theory of Sleep 

Numerous theories have been proposed to 
account for the phenomenon of sleep. Bouch¬ 
ard believed sleep to be due to the accumula¬ 
tion in the body of a narcotic poison which, 
according to his view, increases during the 
waking hours and diminishes during sleep. 
The awaking he believed to be due to the 
development during sleep of a spasm produc¬ 
ing poison which causes muscular twitching 
and wakes the sleeper up. 

Hypnotoxin 

Pieron believes he has succeeded in sepa¬ 
rating from the blood a poison which he 
calls “hypnotoxin,” which accumulates dur¬ 
ing waking hours. Dogs die when deprived 
of sleep for ten or twelve days, and according 
to his observer, with marked symptoms of 
poisoning. 


PHILOSOPHY OF SLEEP 


213 


Cajal, the discoverer of the neuron, ex¬ 
plains sleep by the supposition that conscious¬ 
ness is due to the formation of contacts of the 
terminal filaments of the axons of cells in the 
front part of the brain with the dendrites of 
cells in the centers in which sensory impres¬ 
sions are stored. Unconsciousness is the 
result of a breaking of these contacts by con¬ 
traction of the axons or dendrites. That is, 
consciousness exists when the circuits of the 
brain batteries are closed, just as the door 
bell rings when the electrical circuit is closed 
by pressing the button. But what force or in¬ 
fluence presses the button? This nobody 
knows. 

When Intensity of Sleep is Greatest 

Czerny and other observers have pointed 
out the interesting fact that the most pro¬ 
found sleep occurs within the first two hours 
after retiring. This intensity of sleep was 
measured by the intensity of the sound re¬ 
quired to awaken the sleeper. 

The known facts of sleep seem to harmon¬ 
ize well enough with each of the theories pro- 


214 


NEURASTHENIA 


posed, and indeed with all of them, so that 
each may be a part of the truth. It is clear 
enough that work—even the casual work of 
idleness, for the brain is never really idle— 
creates a necessity for sleep, a condition in 
which the output of energy is diminished so 
that the intake predominates and thus re¬ 
stores to the cell its store of energy, which has 
been dissipated during the waking and work¬ 
ing hours. 

Do Not Rob Nature of Sleep 

Nothing could be more unwise than the at¬ 
tempt to cheat nature of her opportunity for 
replenishing the body’s energy supply. The 
granules of the cells are like the ammunition 
of the gunner. It is energy stuff, which under 
the influence of the will may be made to yield 
up its store of force in small explosions of 
ideas and impulses, which may be organized 
into plans, theories, and actions. Primarily 
a man’s working power depends upon his 
storage capacity for energy stuff, and the 
amount of available material in the store. 


PHILOSOPHY OF SLEEP 


215 


Do not Try to Work on Insufficient Sleep 

Many persons have become neurasthenic 
through attempting to follow the custom of 
a Napoleon, a Wellington, an Edison, or 
some other great man reputed to have been 
able to work hard and continuously with an 
allowance of only four or five hours for sleep. 
It is probable that no human being has been 
able to work continuously for any consider¬ 
able length of time on only four hours in the 
twenty-four. It is said that Napoleon spent 
only four hours in bed, but biographers tell 
us that he took frequent naps in the day 
time. Wellington has also been said to have 
been contented with four hours of sleep at 
night, but it is recorded by one of his bio¬ 
graphers that he not infrequently fell asleep 
at the dinner table; and on one occasion his 
son, who was riding with him, discovered that 
he had fallen asleep while driving a spirited 
horse at a brisk pace down one of the princi¬ 
pal streets of London. 

Mr. Thomas A. Edison, one of the hard¬ 
est working men of the present or any other 


216 


NEURASTHENIA 


time, and whose genius has developed more 
important inventions than can be credited to 
any other living man, is also reputed to re¬ 
quire but four hours sleep daily. This also 
is an error. The writer has been informed 
by persons who are well acquainted with Mr. 
Edison’s habits that while the great inventor 
spends only four hours in bed, and sometimes 
does not undress for several days in succes¬ 
sion, he nevertheless has a bed in his labora¬ 
tory on which he drops down for a short nap 
whenever he feels inclined, which is often 
several times a day. An intimate friend of 
Mr. Edison said to the writer in answer to 
an inquiry upon this subject, “Mr. Edison 
sleeps as much as people usually do.” 

No one should imagine that a high degree 
of brain activity can be maintained continu¬ 
ously without giving the brain an opportunity 
for storing energy, which can only be done by 
the complete rest and repose to be secured by 
seven or eight hours of sleep. A very few 
persons may be able to get along fairly well 
with six hours, but eight hours of complete 
rest in bed are required by the average per- 


PHILOSOPHY OF SLEEP 


217 


son. Many persons who have a predisposi¬ 
tion to neurasthenia require an hour or two 
more. 


Sleeplessness 

Sleeplessness is often one of the most per¬ 
sistent and distressing of all the various dis¬ 
orders to which the neurasthenic is subject. 
Every sleepless night aggravates the disease 
and intensifies every symptom. Drugs are 
not only useless as curative agents, but are 
often dangerous because they increase the 
neurasthenia, even when they induce sleep, 
and ultimately intensify the insomnia. 

Fortunately there are simple but most ef¬ 
fective means by which insomnia may be re¬ 
lieved. The most important of these is the 
neutral bath. This consists of a full bath at 
a temperature of 92 0 to 96° F. A bath of 
this temperature has wonderful calmative and 
soporific effects. The duration of the bath 
may be as long as necessary to produce the 
desired effects. Several hours of the bath 
may be required. Sooner or later the dis¬ 
position to sleep will come, and then the pa- 


218 


NEURASTHENIA 


tient may leave the bath and retire. In get¬ 
ting out of the bath the greatest care must be 
taken to avoid chilling even in the slightest 
degree. The patient should not be cooled off 
in the usual way after warm baths, but 
should be wrapped in a Turkish sheet and 
gently dried (not rubbed), and should then 
slip into a warm bed as quietly as possible. 

The wet-girdle is another remedy which 
proves quite efficient in a very large number 
of cases. This measure consists of a moist 
towel wrung quite dry out of cold water, then 
applied about the trunk and covered with a 
dry flannel and mackintosh or oiled muslin. 
Care must be taken that the edges of the 
rnoist towel are not exposed, as the evapora¬ 
tion thus induced will cause chilling and so 
destroy the good effect of the application. 
This bandage may be worn every night for 
months if necessary, but a fresh towel must 
be used every day to avoid infection of the 
skin. 

The wet-sheet pack is another simple sleep 
producer of great power. It has the advant¬ 
age that it may be used when a full bath is 


PHILOSOPHY OF SLEEP 


219 


not available, and as the patient goes to sleep 
in the pack he may be allowed to sleep undis¬ 
turbed for several hours, or even the whole 
night. The wet-sheet pack is more difficult of 
application and requires the services of a 
nurse well trained and experienced in hy- 
driatic methods. 

Gentle exercise in the fresh air in one’s 
bedroom just before retiring conduces to 
sleep by diverting an excess of blood from 
the brain to the muscles. Massage, espe¬ 
cially directed to the feet and legs, acts in 
the same way as a derivative of blood from 
the head. A hot bag to the feet when they 
are cold, and a cold bag when the feet are 
hot, are other useful measures. 

Sleeping in the open air is not only con¬ 
ducive to sleep, but secures other advantages 
which are of great service to the neurasthenic, 
increasing nerve tone, appetite, and improv¬ 
ing digestion and general vital resistance. 

A Simple Device for Inducing Sleep 

A simple device which sometimes aids in 
inducing sleep is the following: on going to 


220 


NEURASTHENIA 


bed take along a card and a short bit of pencil. 
After taking care to compose the body and 
mind in as comfortable a state as possible, 
begin taking regular and deep breaths, put¬ 
ting down a mark on the card for each breath. 
The number of marks on the card in the 
morning will serve as a record of the time re¬ 
quired for getting to sleep. This simple 
means serves to divert the mind from harass¬ 
ing subjects and induces a monotonous mental 
state which is favorable to sleep. 

The Noise Nuisance 

That noise may be a cause of disease is no 
longer questioned by pathologists. Certain 
persons get used to noises, no matter of what 
sort, when long exposed to them, and seem to 
suffer no injury; but even these persons are 
being damaged more or less by the constant 
hammering upon their nerve centers through 
the auditory nerves. Nerve centers need rest 
quite as much as do muscles. Without the 
complete rest which is required by quiet re¬ 
pose, the strongest nervous system will ulti¬ 
mately break down with nervous exhaustion 


PHILOSOPHY OF SLEEP 


22! 


or with some more specific nerve disorder. 

Many persons are born with sensitive 
nerves. The neurotic type is rapidly increas¬ 
ing, both as the result of our perverted civil¬ 
ization and as the result of heredity, Na¬ 
ture’s inexorable bookkeeper, which puts 
down every infraction of the laws of physical 
rectitude and takes care that every seed of 
disease thus planted bears its legitimate crop 
in the children of the wrong-doer as well as 
in his own experience. 

These hyper-sensitive people are great suf¬ 
ferers from the varied noises which make up 
the hum and roar of city life. Even sleep does 
not deliver them from the wear and tear of 
the discordant acoustic waves which are con¬ 
tinually pounding their ear drums. When we 
sleep, we close our eyes and thus shut out the 
light, with its irritating actinic and luminous 
vibrations; but we cannot close our ears in 
similar fashion. They remain open during 
sleep, and sound impressions continue to pour 
into the brain precisely as during our waking 
hours. This is doubtless a wise arrangement 
by which Nature provides that the body shall 


222 


NEURASTHENIA 


not altogether be cut oft from communication 
with the external world, even during sleep. 

Sound, restful sleep in the presence of 
noise is thus impossible. A person who lives 
in the midst of noise gets no really complete 
rest day or night; asleep or awake, the nerve 
centers are constantly receiving a torrent of 
irritating impulses. This incessant nerve 
nagging gives no opportunity for recupera¬ 
tive rest. 


The Public Too Forbearing 

The public has been quite too tolerant and 
long-suffering in this matter. Not infre¬ 
quently noisy factories are permitted to lo¬ 
cate in the center of populous sections. Loco¬ 
motives and factories are allowed to blow 
powerful whistles and sirens that, in some 
cases, make the windows rattle a mile away. 
Street car lines are permitted to run worn-out 
cars with flat wheels which pound the rails 
like gigantic trip-hammers. A host of un¬ 
necessary and nerve-racking noises are per¬ 
mitted which might easily be suppressed by 
the concerted action of intelligent citizens. 


PHILOSOPHY OF SLEEP 


223 


Writes one of the leading nerve specialists 
of St. Louis, who is fighting the nuisance in 
that beer- and noise-ridden city: “The un¬ 
necessary noises of modern times are turning 
the nation into a multitude of sleep neuras¬ 
thenics. The worst noises of the day are the 
automobile horns, the street cars and the 
screeching of factory whistles. Who can de¬ 
fend the chorus of whistles that the manufac¬ 
turing establishments turn loose morning, 
noon and night? Then there are the church 
bells; they have outlived their usefulness. 
People nowadays do not need to be called to 
worship by a thundering peal from half a 
dozen bells, for certainly everyone can af¬ 
ford a dollar watch. The shrill screech of 
the peanut vender’s wagon also ought to be 
suppressed.” 

Noise a Neurotic Habit 

One of our popular magazines in a very in¬ 
telligent discussion of the question of noise 
says: “Noise is fast becoming a neurotic 
habit of the American people. Inevitably, as 
an organism takes the impress of its environ- 


224 


NEURASTHENIA 


ment, a persistent atmosphere of confusion 
sooner or later forms a permanent back¬ 
ground of consciousness. The nervous sys¬ 
tem, constantly compelled to combat with 
noise, acquires an habitual alertness, and an 
abnormal iritability keeps it forever occupied. 
Actual quiet produces a functional vacuum. 
Tension, incompatible with real rest, marks 
even the hours of customary repose. 

“Locomotives shriek in town and country 
by night and by day. Beautiful suburbs in 
our Western cities suffer nightly from the in¬ 
cessant signals of engines on adjacent freight 
tracks. A great university has its campus 
doubly crossed by railway lines, and hourly 
its lecturers pause in decline of competition 
with the noise-drowning steam-blasts of the 
locomotives as they approach the viaducts. 
Trolley-cars replace the steam whistle with 
the compressed air ‘screamer.’ 

“Electric and cable cars, upon surface or 
elevated lines, contribute a large share to the 
general and miscellaneous volume of a city’s 
noise. The grind of flanges upon unlubri¬ 
cated curves; the unnecessary back-lash of 


PHILOSOPHY OF SLEEP 


225 


worn gearing upon down-grades; the rattle 
of cable and clutch and brake; the roar and 
jar of rushing speed—all testify to the fact 
that science has not yet secured the means of 
reducing locomotive noise. 

“Steamers, tug-boats, and electric launches 
practice a well-nigh fiendish ingenuity in their 
varied achievement of toot and whistle as 
they ply the lakes and rivers, while occasion¬ 
ally some sportive captain equips his craft 
with a steam siren by way of making extra 
noise. 

“In many towns and cities of America 
operatives are called to work, to eat, and— 
strange paradox—to rest, by a concert of 
blasts from the throats of scores or hundreds 
of factory whistles. Frequently, the factory 
clocks vary by minutes, when the concert of 
noise is broken and becomes a succession of 
prolonged and painful shrieks. It is still the 
custom in many places to put steam-whistles 
into service as a fire-alarm. 

“Wagons, laden with structural materials, 
add to the babel of cities the jar of their care¬ 
lessly loaded burdens. Automobiles course 


226 


NEURASTHENIA 


the city streets and country roads with every 
variety of discordant signal. 

“Street peddlers vie with one another in 
the noisy advertisement of their wares. 
Newsboys re-echo the sensational features of 
the press in tones as exaggerated as many of 
the journals they vend. Enthusiasm, in any 
and every cause, vents itself in catcalls, horns, 
and piercing whistles. 

“That noise has never been defined as a 
public nuisance under the common law or the 
sanitary code is strange, for it is easy to prove 
its injury to human health. In common with 
all stimulants, its withdrawal makes its 
pathological influence physiologically clear. 

When the Stillness Hurts 

“Now and again, when the vast volume of 
a city’s roar is broken by some musical sound, 
the sense of auditory relief is testimony to the 
nerve tension which the hearer habitually and 
unconsciously suffers. Even in the compara¬ 
tive calm of a city’s night, this nerve tension 
enters into sleep, and mars the relaxation 
upon which rest depends. 


PHILOSOPHY OF SLEEP 


111 


“When the neurasthenic undertakes the 
rest-cure, the overwrought and exhausted 
nervous system at first rebels against the en¬ 
forced quietude. It has been strung to noise. 
So integral a part of the consciousness be¬ 
comes the appreciation of habitual sound that 
actual silence brings a painful sense of 
vacuum, to which the nervous mechanism 
finds it difficult to adjust itself. A young lad, 
whose life had been spent in the ceaseless up¬ 
roar of a great city, cried out upon his first 
introduction to the countryside, ‘Oh! it is too 
much! The stillness hurts!’ 

“The mischievous consequences of irrita¬ 
tive stimuli are not by any means confined to 
the specific sensations that they evoke. 
Against these prejudicial influences, the nerv¬ 
ous system wears an invisible armor, which 
the physiologist calls the quality of resistance. 
Multitudinous stimuli act upon the peripheral 
sense organs of hearing, of sight, of touch, 
etc., to which the nerve centers are refractory. 
They may excite impressions, which flood the 
avenues of special sense, but against these, 
whenever they are ineffective (subminimal), 


228 


NEURASTHENIA 


whenever they are too intensive (hyper-maxi¬ 
mal) , or whenever they are markedly arhyth- 
mical, this wall of resistance in the nerve- 
centers is raised. 

“That not only the response but the re¬ 
sistance of nerve-cells means the expenditure 
of energy is shown by the fact that when 
nerve-cells suffer partial exhaustion, their re¬ 
sistance is readily overcome; they prove too 
easily responsive. Slight stimuli provoke in 
them marked reaction; strong stimuli, riotous 
results. In early and in late life this in¬ 
stability of the nervous mechanism is fre¬ 
quently exhibited. The aged start at slight 
and unexpected noises. An infant of four 
months, startled by the explosion of a cannon 
cracker, has been known to pass into con¬ 
vulsions. 

“The nervous system is prejudiced by the 
forced recognition of unpleasant impressions 
induced by marked noises; but it is also con¬ 
tinually taxed to maintain a barrier of pro¬ 
tection against the conscious effects of a great 
volume of minor noise stimuli or to interpose 
muffling or dampering agencies between the 


PHILOSOPHY OF SLEEP 


229 


nerve-centers and their excessive and offensive 
stimulation in this auditory field. 

Education of the Public Needed 

“A careful review of the principal sources 
of noise nuisance suggests that education, 
leading up to public legislation on the one 
hand, and to personal control on the other, is 
requisite for relief. 

“The general adoption of the block system, 
with automatic semaphores and crossing- 
guards, would do away with virtually all 
locomotive signals on steam and trolley 
roads. Muffling or sound-deadening devices 
of various sorts are available for application 
to both locomotive and stationary engines. 
So far as safety demands the retention of 
sound-signals on boats and motor-cars, a cer¬ 
tain musical quality in these may be secured. 
The tremolo, in use upon some automobiles, 
is proof of the possibility. 

“Preference should be given to those forms 
of street paving which combine durability and 
sound-muffling qualities. Manhole covers 
may be made to fit firmly. Wagons, loaded 


230 


NEURASTHENIA 


with structural materials, uncushioned to pre¬ 
vent jar, should be forbidden to travel upon 
the public streets. Rubber tires, already in 
general use, should invariably be employed. 
Whistling in street cars should be forbidden. 

“Vendors should be required to present 
their wares in inoffensive quiet. Public and 
private celebrations which partake of the 
nature of riot should be forbidden by law. 
The use of firearms and fireworks should be 
generally suppressed in the interest, not only 
of life and limb, but of nerve-poise.” 

Local and national associations are needed 
to organize and carry on a campaign against 
noise. A New York City society has already 
accomplished much in this direction. The 
matter has been taken up with considerable 
success in other cities. 

The noise nuisance is an evil which can be 
suppressed. It is only necessary to awaken 
a general sentiment to the point of rebellion 
against this great public wrong and the thing 
will be done. 


Simple Remedies for Neurasthenic 

Miseries 


The treatment of individual neurasthenic 
symptoms is not in most cases absolutely 
necessary for the cure of the disease, since 
the individual manifestations of the malady 
will gradually disappear as recovery pro¬ 
gresses, provided the fundamental causes are 
removed. Too close attention to individual 
symptoms sometimes serves to keep them 
alive. Not infrequently an ache or a misery 
of some other description which has disap¬ 
peared and been forgotten by the patient will 
reappear in full force when brought back to 
the patient’s consciousness by asking him 
about it. 

The remedies suggested in this chapter are 
nearly all such as may be employed by any 
intelligent person in his own home. Not¬ 
withstanding their simplicity, they are won¬ 
derfully potent and have proved successful in 
the treatment of many hundreds of cases of 
neurasthenia of every type and degree. 

231 


232 


NEURASTHENIA 


The symptomatic treatment of neurasthe¬ 
nia which is dwelt upon in this chapter is in 
no small degree curative as well as palliative. 
Physiologic remedies afford relief by mitigat¬ 
ing or removing causes, and so by repetition 
become effective as curative measures. The 
following measures are adapted to all classes 
of neurasthenics and may be employed as in¬ 
dicated in connection with the more general 
measures suggested in preceding chapters: 

The Relief of Insomnia 

Inability to sleep is one of the most discon¬ 
certing symptoms from which the neuras¬ 
thenic suffers. Long restless nights exhaust 
still further his weakened nerve centers, and 
so aggravate all his sufferings. The tempta¬ 
tion to resort to the use of some sleep pro¬ 
ducing drug becomes almost irresistible. 
There may be instances in which the tem¬ 
porary use of a hypnotic is advisable, but the 
chances are ten to one that the dose of the 
drug will very soon have to be increased and 
that later on it will lose its effect and the in¬ 
somnia will be found to be aggravated. 


SIMPLE REMEDIES 


233 


Fortunately, drugs are not necessary to 
produce sleep, except when general anesthesia 
is required for surgical purposes. Every case 
of insomnia may be relieved without the use 
of sleep producing drugs. This has been 
demonstrated a thousand times in the great 
insane asylums of this and other countries, 
in many cases of acute mania, insomnia being 
found present. 

For particulars of the physiologic methods 
of relieving insomnia see the chapter on sleep. 

Drowsiness 

The neurasthenic who cannot sleep at 
night is often afflicted with an almost irresist¬ 
ible drowsiness during the day, especially 
after meals. Inability to keep awake in 
church or at a lecture is not an uncommon 
symptom. This symptom is especially com¬ 
mon in visceral neurasthenics, who often suf¬ 
fer from drowsiness when sitting or standing, 

but become wide awake on assuming the hori- 

«• 

zontal position. These persons suffer from 
lack of vasomotor regulation, and so are at 
the mercy of gravitation—when upright the 


234 


NEURASTHENIA 


blood runs into the dilated abdominal vessels; 
when horizontal, the blood runs back to the 
head, so that the brain is alternately drained 
of blood and overcharged. 

In certain cases the drowsiness persists 
after lying down, doubtless the result of the 
influence of toxins. After meals absorption 
is much more rapid than at other times, ow¬ 
ing to the greatly increased rate of blood 
movement through the abdominal vessels, so 
that the absorption of toxins is greatly in¬ 
creased. When the poisons produced happen 
to be of a sort which benumb and paralyze the 
nerve cells, drowsiness and stupor are promi¬ 
nent symptoms. 

For the first class of cases the patient 
should rest for half an hour or even an hour 
after meals in a horizontal position. For the 
second class of patients, those who are dis¬ 
posed to sleep on lying down, moderate ex¬ 
ercise for half an hour after eating is to be 
recommended. By exercise the heart action 
is stimulated, the blood-pressure is raised, the 
action of the lungs, skin and kidneys in¬ 
creased, and so the disturbing poisons are de- 


SIMPLE REMEDIES 


235 


stroyed and eliminated. If the patient yields 
to the disposition to sleep after meals he 
falls into a heavy slumber from which he 
awakens feeling weary, dull, and in no way 
benefited. Deep breathing exercises, light 
calisthenics, the vibrating chair, abdominal 
kneading and percussion—all are useful 
measures. 

For temporary relief, bathing the face and 
neck with very hot or cold water, or with 
hot and cold water in alternation, are most 
efficient measures. Drinking half a glassful 
of hot water and lying upon the face over a 
pillow for a few minutes, avoiding sleep, are 
simple measures which often afford prompt 
if temporary relief. 

Mental Depression—the ‘ ‘Blues” 

While all neurasthenics are not subject to 
“the blues,” or spells of depression, it is per¬ 
haps safe to say that persons who suffer much 
and often from “the blues” are almost always 
chronic neurasthenics. Mental depres¬ 
sion is one of the many toxic effects from 
which these patients suffer. The foul breath, 



236 


NEURASTHENIA 


coated tongue, and loathsome stools noted in 
these cases are abundant evidence of the toxic 
origin of the “blues.” The adoption of thor¬ 
oughgoing measures for changing the intesti¬ 
nal flora, and thus suppressing the develop¬ 
ment and absorption of toxins, is quickly fol¬ 
lowed by a change in the mental state, which 
is a delicate indicator of the degree of in¬ 
tensity of the intestinal toxemia. 

Tonic baths, cheerful society, the cultiva¬ 
tion of an optimistic attitude of mind, are 
necessary aids to recovery which must not be 
neglected. It is especially important that the 
patient shall recognize the fact that his 
mental state is simply a reflection of a physical 
condition. He must thoroughly understand 
and appreciate the fact that the “blue devils” 
which stare him in the face and threaten him 
with every possible calamity are really noth¬ 
ing more than ghosts and hobgoblins bred by 
the putrefaction processes active in his colon. 

Fully convinced of this important patho¬ 
logical truth he will cease to encourage the 
morbid mental state by dwelling upon his mel¬ 
ancholy vaporings, and much less will he talk 


SIMPLE REMEDIES 


237 


of his despondency, except briefly to his 
physician. 

The best mental remedy for the “blues” is 
to turn the face resolutely toward better 
things and wait for the poison wave to pass 
over, just as one holds his breath in the surf 
until the foaming crest has passed on. 

A fit of the “blues” is as much an intoxica¬ 
tion as a drunken spree, and a bad attack may 
disqualify a person for wise and efficient ac¬ 
tion as thoroughly as alcoholic intoxication. 
A person subject to the “blues” should in his 
most lucid and optimistic moments resolve to 
make no important decision, and to set a 
special guard over his conduct, while under 
the influence of the flood of poisons to which 
the condition is due. The real cure for the 
“blues” lies in prevention by removing causes. 

Fidgets 

The nervous sensations of the lower ex¬ 
tremities which give rise to constant move¬ 
ment, or so-called “fidgets,” are usually re¬ 
moved by such measures as hot and cold ap¬ 
plications to the spine, and the cold spinal 


238 


NEURASTHENIA 


douche and massage, and usually disappear 
very soon after the patient has begun to im¬ 
prove as a result of general treatment. Very 
pronounced temporary relief is often secured 
by applications of the high-frequency current, 
or so-called static breeze. 

Worry 

Worry, like hate, anger, envy, and all 
other depressing emotions is a poison. It is 
a short circuit which burns out the mental 
batteries and destroys the power for useful 
activity. It is of little use, however, to tell 
the neurasthenic not to worry. He suffers 
from worry just as he suffers from headache, 
cold hands and feet, and other miseries. The 
neurasthenic worries, not because he wishes 
to, but because his mind operates in this dis¬ 
ordered fashion in spite of his desire to the 
contrary. He can no more help worrying by 
voluntary effort than he can stop the smarting 
of a burn or the itching of a mosquito bite by 
a mental effort. Nevertheless, the patient 
can do much to help himself out of the worry 
habit, by an effort to cultivate an optimistic 


SIMPLE REMEDIES 


239 


view of life in general and in each particular 
situation that presents itself. 

Worry, like the “blues,” is generally due 
to chronic poisoning, the cure of which 
changes the color of the mental sky, and lifts 
the patient into a sunny and peaceful atmos¬ 
phere. 

It cannot be denied, however, that worry¬ 
ing is often merely the result of a vicious 
habit, the origin of which may have been a 
neurasthenic state which has passed away. It 
has left the individual’s character with a mor¬ 
bid bias which makes him apprehensive when 
he should be happy, and leads him to worry 
when he should be of good cheer. It is the 
duty of such a person to take himself in hand 
and by severe discipline correct the worry 
habit which often renders miserable not only 
the patient himself, but many others who are 
compelled to associate with him. 

Numbness and Other Paresthesias 

V 

Many neurasthenics suffer greatly from 
sensations in the extremities, which gives the 
impressions of impending paralysis, and so 


240 


NEURASTHENIA 


becomes a source of incessant apprehension 
and worry. Hot flashes, cold sensations, 
prickling, smarting, “electric thrills,” and a 
great variety of other perversions of sensa¬ 
tion are experienced by certain classes of 
neurasthenics. While all these symptoms are 
sometimes experienced by those suffering 
from organic nervous diseases, their occur¬ 
rence in neurasthenia has no other significance 
than a disturbed circulation of the nerve 
trunks. 

Most paresthesias may be relieved, tem¬ 
porarily at least, by very simple measures 
that any patient can himself apply. One of 
the most effective means is sponging with 
very hot water. The temperature of the 
water should be as hot as can be borne in 
order to get the best effects. Massage, the 
neutral bath, a short electric light bath fol¬ 
lowed by cold towel rub or a salt glow are 
very highly effective measures. Electricity, 
especially the so-called high frequency, is 
marvelously effective in some cases. A radi¬ 
cal cure of these distressing symptoms is only 
to be found in a thoroughgoing eradication 


SIMPLE REMEDIES 


241 


of the fundamental causes of the disease 
which may be present in any individual case. 

Palpitation of the Heart 

This symptom is exceedingly common in 
neurasthenics, especially in neurasthenic chil¬ 
dren and youths. The heart movements are 
sometimes exceedingly violent and very 
rapid. The writer recalls a case in which the 
rate of the heart was found by examination 
with the sphygmograph to be three hundred 
beats per minute. 

A characteristic of the neurasthenic’s palpi¬ 
tation is that it is produced by very slight 
causes quite insufficient to produce excitement 
of the heart in well persons, such as some 
slight emotion, moderate exertion, or some 
other cause equally insufficient to produce 
any degree of disturbance of the circulation. 

Pseudo-Angina 

Neurasthenic patients often suffer from at¬ 
tacks of pain and constriction in the region 
of the heart and reaching into the left 
shoulder and arm, sometimes reaching even 


242 


NEURASTHENIA 


to the left leg. When the attack is severe, 
the distress may be so great as to greatly 
terrify the patient. The pulse becomes small 
and feeble, the extremities become cold, the 
heart beats very feebly, the face is pale and 
livid. These attacks so closely resemble at¬ 
tacks of real angina-pectoris, the result of 
degenerative changes in the arteries of the 
heart that they are frequently mistaken for 
this condition. The attack passes off in ten 
or fifteen minutes. The face becomes flushed 
with a sensation of heat. The sense of con¬ 
striction and other distressing symptoms dis¬ 
appear. These attacks are due to disturb¬ 
ances of the vasomotor centers, causing con¬ 
traction of the small arteries, an exaggera¬ 
tion, perhaps, of the same condition which 
in minor manifestations appear as simple 
coldness of the hands and feet. 

Attacks of this kind in neurasthenics may 
generally be quickly relieved by the applica¬ 
tion of hot fomentations over the heart. In 
some cases a fomentation to the back and the 
neck is more effective, and still more promptly 
beneficial in some cases is a short hot full 


SIMPLE REMEDIES 


243 


bath. The temperature of the bath should 
be ioo° at the beginning and rapidly raised 
to 105° or iio°. The duration of the bath 
should not be more than three to five minutes. 
Drinking a tumbler full of hot liquid, such 
as a glass of hot water or hot lemonade, is 
often very useful. 

Mind Wandering 

Mental confusion, weakness of the will, 
and general exaggeration of all neurasthenic 
symptoms are legitimate results of the hypno¬ 
tic method in neurasthenia. What the neu¬ 
rasthenic needs in the way of psychopathic 
treatment is a strengthening of his will by the 
normal exercise of his own volition. Such 
education of the will may be accomplished in 
all cases by the patient himself if he has left 
sufficient resolution and strength of character 
to take himself in hand in a thoroughgoing 
way. In bad cases, however, the aid and ad¬ 
vice of a wise physician is necessary. 

It is interesting to note the favorable 
psychic effect of the physiologic method of 
dealing with this disease. In carrying out a 


244 


NEURASTHENIA 


systematic course of treatment, such as is es¬ 
sential for the best results in pronounced 
cases, the patient must undergo at every hour 
of the day some special treatment or execute 
some task in carrying out his physician’s pre¬ 
scription. This in itself is an excellent 
psychic training and has a decided curative 
effect. The neurasthenic patient who in fol¬ 
lowing the instruction of his physician gets 
up in the morning and before breakfast takes 
a cold shower bath, or has an ice rub to his 
spine or takes a plunge in cool water or a 
cold spinal douche, receives a psychic stimu¬ 
lus as well as a physical uplift, and each time 
that he meets his morning appointment, not¬ 
withstanding his natural reluctance, he gains 
a measure of mental and moral control over 
his impulses and so makes progress toward 
the reorganization of his mental faculties. 

Headache 

The headache of neurasthenia is usually 
toxic in character. Attacks of migraine, 
which are very common in neurasthenics, 
when once begun cannot be stopped, al- 


SIMPLE REMEDIES 


245 


though the patient’s suffering may be greatly 
mitigated and the attack may be abbreviated. 
The time to cure an attack of migraine is be¬ 
fore it begins, and this is true of headache in 
general. A thorough bowel movement three 
times a day, a careful adherence to an anti¬ 
toxic diet, excluding both milk and eggs as 
well as meat, are most effective measures for 
combating so-called sick headache. In these 
cases the most important of all measures is 
change of the intestinal flora. How this is 
to be done is told in detail elsewhere in this 
work. Temporary relief from some forms 
of headache may be generally obtained by al¬ 
ternating hot and cold applications to the back 
of the neck, or application of heat to the back 
of the neck and cold to the forehead or ver¬ 
tex. In cases in which the face is pale, hot 
applications are most effective. When the 
face is flushed, cold applications are indicated. 
The same measures are also effective means 
of relieving neckache and vertex headache, 
from which many neurasthenics suffer. 

Backache 

Backache is usually interpreted to mean 


246 


NEURASTHENIA 


some affection of the spine, but this is rarely 
true. The worst forms of spinal disease are 
not characterized by pain in the back. The 
same is true of Bright’s disease. Only acute 
inflammatory disease of the kidneys or their 
surroundings and calculi are likely to give 
rise to pain in the back. There are many 
forms of backache, some of which are the re¬ 
sult of inflammation or other diseased condi¬ 
tion in the pelvis. Neurasthenic backaches 
may be due to strain upon the sympathetic 
nerves, resulting from prolapse of the viscera, 
but in a great majority of cases the pain in the 
lower part of the back is due to colitis, an 
exceedingly common condition in neuras¬ 
thenics. Backache is often due to constipa¬ 
tion. 

Neurasthenic backaches are generally asso¬ 
ciated with a sensitive condition of the sympa¬ 
thetic ganglia, as shown by tenderness of the 
epigastrium when pressure is made with the 
fingers; or great sensitiveness is developed 
by pressure on either side of the umbilicus. 
It must be remembered also that neuras¬ 
thenics are likely to be sufferers from rheu- 


SIMPLE REMEDIES 


247 


matism in some of its forms. Backache may 
be due to a rheumatic condition of the joint 
between the sacrum and hip-joint on one or 
both sides, the so-called “sacro iliac syn¬ 
chondrosis,” or the seat of the rheumatism 
may be the lumbar vertebrae. The true neu¬ 
rasthenic backache is a reflex pain due to 
visceral irritation. In such cases the pain 
often extends to the hips and is not infre¬ 
quently felt in the legs, which in such cases 
are also subject to numb sensations. In these 
cases colitis is usually present. The pain is 
most common in the left side because the de¬ 
scending colon is the most common seat of 
colitis. 


How to Relieve Backache 

The backache of neurasthenia is generally 
very promptly relieved by a hot fomentation 
or alternating hot and cold applications to 
the back. The application of light by means 
of the photophore or the rays of the arc 
lamp generally afford very prompt relief. 
This relief is at first temporary. Daily or tri¬ 
daily applications, continued for a few days 


248 


NEURASTHENIA 


or weeks, effect a cure by relieving visceral 
irritation to which the pain is found to be 
due. 

A hot bath, judicious massage of the back 
muscles, and local electric applications, espe¬ 
cially the application of the high-frequency 
current, are often effective means of relief. 

One of the most useful of all measures for 
relief of backache in neurasthenics is the ab¬ 
dominal supporter. This is especially effec¬ 
tive in the splanchnic neurasthenics who suf¬ 
fer most when on their feet. Ordinary ab¬ 
dominal bandages are of little use. A sup¬ 
porter to be effective must raise the lower ab¬ 
domen, as may be done with the hands. For 
this purpose it is necessary that the supporter 
should be held in place with springs which 
operate like those of a spring truss. When 
properly constructed and accurately adjusted, 
the relief afforded by such a supporter is 
usually very great. 

Eye Tire 

Numerous medical writers have laid great 
stress upon the importance of eye strain as a 


SIMPLE REMEDIES 


249 


cause of neurasthenia. Certain writers have 
even found in so-called eye strain the cause 
of various mental perversions and eccentrici¬ 
ties to which various notable persons, artists, 
poets, musicians, and others have been ob¬ 
served to be subject. 

Eye strain or muscular asthenopia is due 
to lack of balance in the muscles which con¬ 
trol the eyes. Each eye makes an indepen¬ 
dent image of the object looked at. For per¬ 
fect vision it is necessary that these two 
images should be fused in one. This is ac¬ 
complished automatically by the nerve centers 
which control the movements of the eye in 
the vision. 

It will be readily seen that the instantan¬ 
eous adjustment of the muscles of the eye to 
produce perfect vision at the constantly vary¬ 
ing distances at which objects are recognized 
is one of the most delicate and finely balanced 
of all the muscular activities of the body. The 
disturbance of this eye balancing function 
gives rise to what is termed eye strain. When 
the action of the muscles is not such as to 
make a perfect fusion of images of objects, 


250 


NEURASTHENIA 


two objects are seen instead of one and the 
effort to overcome this defect gives rise to 
pain and fatigue in the eyes and a variety of 
other symptoms among which are blurred 
vision, inability to look long at an object, con¬ 
gestion and smarting of the eyes, headache, 
sometimes of the most severe type such as 
migraine, giddiness, and sensation of falling 
forward. Palpitation of the heart, even mel¬ 
ancholia and epilepsy, have been attributed to 
eye strain. 

There are many medical authorities who 
believe that eye strain is one of the leading 
causes of neurasthenia. In our own opinion 
these writers place the cart before the 
horse. In other words, eye-strain is more 
often a result of neurasthenia than the cause 
of it. There are several circumstances 
which confirm this view. An important fact 
is that the majority of persons who complain 
of eye strain in connection with neurasthenia 
have lived a greater part of their lives en¬ 
tirely free from eye symptoms, and by the 
aid of proper therapeutic measures their 
symptoms may be made to disappear. 


SIMPLE REMEDIES 


251 


The writer has had under observation a 
considerable number of persons whose eyes 
have been operated upon numerous times by 
eye specialists for relief of eye strain and 
neurasthenia, but without favorable results. 
In a considerable number of these cases com¬ 
plete relief was obtained by the measures 
recommended in this work and without any 
surgical procedures. Inability to use the 
eyes for any length of time in reading is a 
common symptom in neurasthenia. The 
truth seems to be that in many, if not all, cases 
of eye strain connected with neurasthenia the 
real fault is in the nerve supply of the eye 
rather than in the muscles. The lowering of 
the nerve tone has rendered the eye muscles 
incapable of maintaining the nice balance re¬ 
quired for perfect vision. When the general 
nerve tone is raised by the application of 
proper measures the eye symptoms disappear. 
Bathing the eyes with very hot water is an 
excellent means of relieving the fatigue ex¬ 
perienced by the subject of eye strain. Rest 
is also important, since much use of the eyes 
when symptoms of eye strain exist greatly 


252 


NEURASTHENIA 


aggravates the local affection and also the 
general nervous condition. An oculist 
should be consulted and after careful tests it 
may be found possible to secure great relief 
by the wearing of suitable glasses. 

Neurasthenic Ears 

It is astonishing how sensitive the ear 
sometimes becomes in neurasthenic patients, 
especially neurasthenic women. Slight sounds 
which are scarcely noticeable by normal peo¬ 
ple may be to such persons extremely pain¬ 
ful. Usually the patient does not suffer when 
his mind is diverted, and in many cases ears 
which have been long coddled, to the incon¬ 
venience of an entire family or even a whole 
neighborhood, may lose their sensibility under 
drastic treatment by exposure to monotonous 
noises, such as the rattle of vehicles over a 
street pavement or the thunder of rushing 
trains. 

The auditory symptoms will disappear 
with improvement of the patient’s condition. 
Temporary relief may be obtained by tightly 


SIMPLE REMEDIES 


253 


stopping the ears with absorbent cotton 
smeared with paraffin. 

Cramps 

Cramps in the calves of the legs and other 
muscular groups, to which many neuras¬ 
thenics are subject, may be relieved by hot ap¬ 
plications and massage. The spasm may be 
generally interrupted by grasping the limb 
between the hands and making firm pressure 
upon the knotted muscle. 

Trembling 

This symptom is frequently observed in 
neurasthenics, especially in very pronounced 
cases. The trembling is usually confined to 
the upper extremities and has the form of 
fine short oscillations of the hands and fingers 
which is especially manifested when the pa¬ 
tient is asked to hold out the hand with the 
fingers separated. 

Cold Hands and Feet 

Many neurasthenics suffer almost con¬ 
stantly from coldness and often clamminess 


254 


NEURASTHENIA 


of the hands and feet. This symptom is most 
likely to appear soon after eating. It may 
also be induced by mental or nervous excite¬ 
ment. The cause is spasm of the blood-ves¬ 
sels of the extremities, due to irritation of the 
vasomotor centers of the spine. Temporary 
relief may be obtained by rubbing or by alter¬ 
nating hot and cold applications to the spine. 
The abdominal supporter sometimes affords 
complete relief by supporting the abdominal 
viscera and thus preventing the reflex irrita¬ 
tion of the vasomotor centers. The abdomi¬ 
nal bandage should be worn at night. Fo¬ 
mentations and other hot applications to the 
abdomen lessen the irritability of the sympa¬ 
thetic centers and are thus serviceable in 
overcoming this unpleasant symptom. 

Sweating Palms and Soles 

This symptom is due to disturbances of 
the vasomotor centers; that is, the centers 
which control the small blood-vessels. Hot 
and cold applications to the spine and hot and 
cold bathing of the hands and feet are very 
useful palliative measures, but a cure can be 


SIMPLE REMEDIES 


255 


accomplished only by removing the cause 
through the use of the measures outlined in 
preceding chapters. The disappearance of 
this symptom is very often one of the earliest 
indications of improvement. 

Heaviness, Pain and Gastric Discomforts After 

Meals 

These symptoms, very frequent in neuras¬ 
thenics are best relieved by rest of half an 
hour or an hour in a horizontal resting posi¬ 
tion after eating. When the pain is intense, 
a bag filled with hot water should be applied 
over the stomach. Deep breathing, with a 
sand bag resting on the abdomen, is also use¬ 
ful. Some patients find relief by lying upon 
the face over a pillow for half an hour after 
meals, taking frequent deep breaths in the 
meantime. 




























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Volume V 

Neurasthenia: Its Causes and Cure 






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